The Chinese Connection

The Chinese Connection

With the safety car being pulled into duty on lap 54 of a 56 lap Chinese GP, the end of the race was bit of a anticlimax. However other than Hamilton suffering a hot butt (literally as his seat was inexplicably heating up!!) the race was pretty standard fare.

It was a standard day in office for the Silver Arrows. After locking down the front row post qualifying, the duo of Hamilton and Rosberg were never challenged. Hamilton crucially controlled the pace in the second segment of the race going slow enough to aggravate his team mate but doing so meant that he preserved enough life in his tyres to ensure that he could up the pace as needed which he did by posting the fastest lap times just before his second pit stop. In the process he built up a 6 second gap from his team mate. Rosberg did not seem to have any moves to mount a serious challenge. He was also kept on the straight and narrow by Sebastian Vettel who kept the gap close enough to capitalise if his fellow German compromised his tyre strategy by attempting to challenge the leading Mercedes.

Ferrari tried the undercut using Vettel at the pit stop but was unable to work their magic as in Sepang with Merc seemingly wiser in the third race of the season. Towards the last few laps of the race a scintillating battle between the Ferrari teammates seemed in the offing. Raikkonen had tyres that were 4 laps newer then Vettel's and was reeling in his team mate at a steady pace. But any hopes of seeing a Vettel-Raikkonen match up were dashed by the safety car coming in at lap 54 with two more laps to go and staying till the end, on account of Vestappen's engine blowup. It was an unfortunate closure to what had been another stellar piece of racing from the young gun.

Alonso did what he usually does, putting in a fantastic last segment on soft tyres to reel in his team-mate Jeson Button who was having a right tussle with Pastor Maldonado. Fights with Maldonado rarely seem to end well with Jenson tagging the back of Maldonado's car sending the Venezuelan into retirement. Having being close enough to the two to get tangled in the mess, Alonso kept his nose clean to make up two places. Jenson was lucky to be able to finish the race. Hope to see Alonso get back to achieving great results with mediocre cars. The incident was to be investigated after the race.

In the end it was a one two for the Silver Arrows followed by the Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen. After three races the team order seems to be Mercedes followed by Ferrari, Williams and Sauber. Next week Bahrain after which the show moves on to Europe where the team order will be really shaken down.

The horse prances at Sepang

German precision and Italian passion.

Ferrari is back. Mercedes tripped over their strategy or rather the lack of it. The safety car also helped Ferrari. But that takes nothing away from what Ferrari achieved as a team. As they say luck is where preparation meets opportunity.

Amazing what changes over a span of two weeks. After the race at Melbourne the f1 fratenity was in a tizzy on how strong Mercedes was and how their domination would be bad for the sport. Even the drivers at Mercedes seemed apologetic about it. Fast forward to Sepang, we had a Ferrari split the Mercs in qualifying and go on to put together a brilliant race to finally take the chequered flag. And what a race. 16 laps left and 13 seconds behind, Hamilton had a chance if it had not been for the decision to put on the hard compound for the last stint. What was required was 1.42.7 which was a tough ask from the hard compound even with the talented hands of Hamilton guiding them. 

Ferrari's decision to stick to their two stop strategy and stay out during the safety car period proved to be spot on. Harks back to the inspired strategies at Ferrari during the Ross Brawn era. The 2.4 second pit stop gave Vettel a chance to come out just behind Rosberg and build a 23 second gap over Hamilton when the Mercedes driver pitted for the second time, which equates to the time needed to pit and come out without losing track position. Lewis being Lewis whittled the gap down to around 19 seconds to ensure that he gained track position when Vettel pitted for the second time. But even with a relatively slower 3 second pit stop, Vettel's race pace ensured he came out just ahead of Rosberg and around 9 seconds behind Hamilton who had one more pit stop remaining. However having used their softer compounds during qualifying, Mercedes put out Hamilton on the hard compound which just did not have the pace required to reel in the leading Ferrari.

Lost among all the action at the front was Raikkonen who rounded out the top four positions. Starting 11th after a spot of bad luck in qualifying, a puncture in the race pushing him dead last, he put together a superb drive to finish 4th and complete a very successful weekend for Ferrari. Misfortunes aside he may have made it two podium steps for Ferrari. 

It was a strong comeback for the sport as well with a very close fought race up and down the order. Be it the young chaps at Torro Rosso out classing their seniors at Red Bull, the close fights between Force India, Lotus and the Red Bull, the fights between the Williams drivers the race never had a dull moment. A word in for Max Verstappen - who came in for a lot of flak for being introduced into F1 at such a tender age. Over the last two races he has shown what a good pair of hands he has, indulging is some close wheel to wheel racing with Valtteri Bottas. F1 is tough politically and if he has the head to deal with all the mind games, I think we are looking at a future world champion in the making. The talent is definitely there.

McLarens did better but still have a long way to go before taking the fight to the leaders. The races in Europe will be the ones that separate the men from the boys and confirm whether Ferrari's form is enough to beat the Silver Arrows. Here's to what looks set to be an awesome season of racing.