Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso owed their large points hauls in Shanghai at least partly thanks to the second appearance of the safety car.
The erased the huge amount of time they had lost with extra pit stops at the start of the race and, in Alonso’s case, a penalty for jumping the start.
But Robert Kubica was left to rue the second safety car period which ultimately cost him a podium finish.
The start
As mentioned in the pre-race analysis, the Shanghai layout tends to keep the cars in grid order at the start. Sure enough, the major changes on the first lap came because of Fernando Alonso’s jumped start and the crash which eliminated Vitantonio Liuzzi, Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi.
However Mark Webber did manage to get his revenge on team mate Sebastian Vettel by passing him at the start, as Vettel did to him at Sepang two weeks ago.
Top three drivers’ lap times
Hamilton’s off-the-chart spike on laps six and seven show where he lost a huge amount of time to leaders Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button because of his early switch to intermediate tyres.
Once back on slicks he was able to lap much quicker than them whenever he found clear air. He set the fastest lap of the race very early, on lap 13, when the track was at its driest.
Lap 19 was Rosberg’s undoing as he ran off the track and was subsequently passed by Button. The five seconds he lost on that lap are obscured on the chart because of the pit stop he made immediately afterwards.
The McLaren drivers made their final pit stops on laps 37 (Hamilton) and 38 (Button). From that point on it was a straight race to the flag between them. Button pulled away initially, pulling a ten second lead over his team mate.
But he went off the track on lap 51 at the hairpin and from that point on Hamilton was quicker. It’s likely he spent the first part of this stint preserving his tyres knowing how long they’d have to last – look at the wear Webber suffered having made his final stop for intermediates two laps before Hamilton.
On the final lap Hamilton took a second out of his team mate’s lead to finish within 1.5 seconds of Button. What we don’t know is whether the team were telling them to cool it while Hamilton pressed on, hoping his team mate would slip up again.
Pit stops
The unpredictable weather made a mockery of several teams’ strategists, particularly those who made early stops for intermediate tyres and then returned to the pits only a couple of laps later to go back to slicks.
By the end of the race Jaime Alguersuari and Nico H?â??lkenberg took the record with six visits to the pits each. Alonso finished fourth despite pitting three times in the first six laps.
As the chart above shows Renault were the only team to get the call right for both their cars. Button, Rosberg, Pedro de la Rosa and Heikki Kovalainen also stayed out – the Lotus driver was rewarded with a short-lived elevation to the dizzy heights of sixth place on lap eight.
Lap chart
The different fortunes of the two Ferrari drivers is striking. Their strategies were similar but despite the added advantage of a drive-through penalty Alonso battled through the field much more effectively than his team mate.
Felipe Massa ended the race with the Red Bulls and Renaults separating him from his team mate.
After reaching sixth Kovalainen’s tumble back down the running order was inevitable. But the much-delayed H?â??lkenberg never caught the Lotus driver, ending the race nine seconds behind the Finn.
Interactive race chart
View interactive chart full screen
The interactive race chart makes it easy to see the state of play before that crucial second safety car period. Hover over lap 21 to see just how far ahead Button and Rosberg were before the safety car was summoned so the marshals could recover debris from Jaime Alguersuari’s car.
At this point Hamilton, seventh, was 54 seconds behind and Alonso, tenth, was 76 seconds adrift. Without the safety car, Rosberg and Kubica would have remained out of Hamilton’s reach and Alonso might not even have got past Vitaly Petrov.
It takes nothing away from the quality of their drives which were distinguished by few mistakes and some excellent passes. But you can see why Renault are regretting Kubica’s lost podium.
2010 Chinese Grand Prix
- 2010 Chinese Grand Prix – the complete F1 Fanatic review
- Ferrari deny Alonso-Massa rift
- Points for Petrov and first McLaren 1-2 since 2007 (Chinese GP stats and facts)
- Safety car spares Hamilton and Alonso’s blushes (Chinese Grand Prix analysis)
- Chinese Grand Prix fastest laps
- Chinese Grand Prix in pictures
- Webber loses out in safety car incident
- Button leads McLaren to one-two in wet race
- Hamilton’s pit lane dice with Vettel could cost him second (Update: no penalty)
- Button takes lead in title race – full points standings after China
VXR
18th April 2010, 19:47
Both guys were the best part of a minute behind Button and Rosberg. Had it not been for Alguersuari’s broken wing, it might have stayed that way.
slr
18th April 2010, 19:54
Alonso for me, is driver of the day. 5 stops and he only finished 12 seconds behind Button.
Hamilton also did fantastically well also. His overtaking definately made a huge contribution to today’s race being awesome.
TommyB
18th April 2010, 20:19
I’m not sure but someone posted this on a forum…
Does each driver get allocate their OWN tyres? (as they have a certain number of tyres each.)
If so did Alonso take on Massa’s tyres during his pitstop as surely the team had Massa’s tyres ready before as Massa was in the lead on track. Of course, Alonso overtook him into the pitlane and came into the pits first. Surely then he took on Massa’s tyres instead of his own unless Ferrari switched them VERY quickly.
Could be complete irrelevant but thought it was interesting…
Any know anything about this?
Jarred Walmsley
18th April 2010, 20:26
Yes, they do get allocated their own tires but as Massa was right behind Alonso, I don’t think it would have really mattered
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
18th April 2010, 20:39
I can only assume they got the tyres switched around, or there surely would have been a penalty.
gpfan
18th April 2010, 23:50
Near as I can remember, the tyres are allocated to the teams on a per car basis. Not per driver. The drivers are then further limited from using more than a certain number of sets of any particular compound per race meeting.
The tyres are serialized for tracking and recorded before and after usage.
That is: The tyre warmers may say “Massa”, but it is just a little matter of changing the paper-work, after installation.
If the team gets two sets of boots per compound, per car, they may use them on either car, so long as the team does not exceed the allotment restrictions on a per car usage for the race weekend.
Of course, I have been wrong before.
andy
Patrickl
18th April 2010, 21:30
I looked it back and the mechanics are ready with both sets of tyres since both cars were coming in anyway.
Guess they quickly switched them when it turned out Alonso passed Massa.
Mike
19th April 2010, 3:57
Very slick work by the Ferrari pit crew regardless.
Ed
18th April 2010, 20:27
It was good, but the extra stop he made compared to Hamilton, Vettel et al was only a drive-through, and obviously the SC nullified the extra stops as well
Tim
18th April 2010, 20:54
It was a good recovery drive from Alonso – but if he hadn’t jumped the start and then pitted for intermediates too early he wouldn’t have needed to recover…
Scribe
18th April 2010, 21:33
slr, the article does kind of point out that though Alonso, an indeed Hamilton made excellent drives, it was luck an possible “show improvements” that made that possible.
Andy Bono
18th April 2010, 21:50
Absolutely Alonso driver of the day, excepting his mistake at start. Also Hamilton did a great driving. Fantastic race at China, hoping show continues like that!
JR
19th April 2010, 4:06
Totally agree. Petrov was #2.
But there is a stealth player in this championship. We need to start paying attention. It is Rosberg.
Last year we all knew Rosberg was a strong quali and racer, but it never (shined/shone ?) through in the end. Perhaps the Williams Toyota?
This year in the Factory Mercedes he is continually and consistently besting Schu.
His races are fairly uneventful, so I fear we don’t focus on him as a result.
But he is fast.
Mike
19th April 2010, 14:25
“His races are fairly uneventful” That just might be why he is doing so well….
VXR
19th April 2010, 11:46
“Alonso for me, is driver of the day. 5 stops and he only finished 12 seconds behind Button.”
Yes, but the safety car came in handy didn’t it. ;)
Mark Shen
18th April 2010, 19:58
You should work as a specialist for investment banks, Keith. Fantastic analysis and beautiful understandable charts. Amazing!!!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
18th April 2010, 20:40
Thanks but I like my current job a lot more :-)
JR
19th April 2010, 4:10
Jesus, I wish I heard stuff like that more. We would be a better human race. (Pun intended)
Great Site! Thanks for all the work.
I’m recommending you for the Bridgestone Peace Prize.
Ivan Vinitskyy
18th April 2010, 19:58
Is there any statistics as to how many overtakes each driver did?
Marc Connell
18th April 2010, 20:01
That can easily be guessed, hamilton,alonso,petrov (he did alot!) on top and the HRT cars down into the negatives!
TommyB
18th April 2010, 20:20
Lots of drivers did many overtaking moves this race, even Sebastian ‘cant overtake’ Vettel :D
Filmon
18th April 2010, 20:16
I second to that; Clearly in terms of overtaking, Hamilton is an disputed overtaker ever sense he started racing. Almost every race he dose most flamboyant and exciting overtakes. very entertaining to watch…
TomD11
18th April 2010, 20:41
Yup, that double overtake on Vettel and Sutil was a real beaut.
JR
19th April 2010, 4:17
“Hamilton is an disputed overtaker ever sense he started racing”
Nonsense.
No offense, Filmon, but prove it.
(I’m assuming you meant “an undisputed”)
I’m disputing it.
I’ll claim that Massa has passed more drivers in the first 20 seconds of races than Hamilton has in his life (not counting lappers/moving chicanes). Massa kills on starts.
Alonso is probably better than Hamilton. What is Schu’s history? Senna? Prost?
Let’s ease up a bit on the Hamilton disease. Please. At least without evidence.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
18th April 2010, 20:43
I’m working on a version of this but it’s quite complicated.
I can already track every change of position for every driver. But you need to eliminate changes of position due to pit stops which is tricky.
Then you have things like Alonso getting past Petrov because he spun. Does that count as an overtake? Not really, but filtering these out requires a lot of manual fiddling.
JR
19th April 2010, 4:30
This is an excellent idea. You should immediately patent it as “Fanatic’s Overtake Analysis.”
But you need to stop thinking about it as work and the complexity of analysing past races.
Just do it going forward, use China as a test case but plan on Spain being the opener.
Yeah, definitely, forget spins, crashes, pits, etc. Just straight-up passes in the field. Everything should have video evidence.
When you think about it, there are actually very few full-on passes between real racers.
What you will have to deal with from the human-construct/ arbitrary-type angle is the single or multiple re-pass incident. China had several of these. The Massa-Schu ones (one?) were (was?) my favorite :)
That final corner onto the front stretch in the rain at China makes this race worth everything. When the inters started to go off with 10-5 laps left and nobody could pit because it meant you were done on position this race really became great.
From second minus 1/1000th (when Alonso started the race) until lap 56 when Hamilton might’ve passed Button, this was one exciting race.
I really hope China doesn’t give up on this adventure.
Patrickl
18th April 2010, 20:52
clip the apex does an analysis of the overtakes for every race. They maintain statistics and have charts showing the number of overtakes per season.
http://www.cliptheapex.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=1482&start=70
They counted 70 overtakes. That has to be a record for the decade.
They actually have a very conservative guideline for counting overtakes. they don’t count overtakes when a car goes off track. Which I personally would count since often it’s a driver that’s forced into a mistake by the following driver.
According to them the top overtakers were: Lewis Hamilton (11), Fernando Alonso (9), Adrian Sutil (8), Sebastian Vettel (8)
@Marc
Petrov didn’t do “a lot”. Only 3 (Alguersuari, Schumacher and Webber). Those were some nice moves though.
Ned Flanders
18th April 2010, 21:08
Well saying as this was only the 4th race of the decade then that’s hardly a huge accolade… Besides, the Australian GP overtakes tally probably wasn’t too far behind
Patrickl
18th April 2010, 21:33
Decade as in last 10 years. Funny man :)
Australia had 41 overtakes. So nearly twice as many today.
Mike
19th April 2010, 4:47
Hahaha, funny ned, but since when was 41 (quote) “nearly twice as many” as 70 ^^
And thanks for that cliptheapex link
Patrickl
19th April 2010, 13:49
I guess you read it wrong. I said 70 is nearly twice as many as 41.
That second “as” that you added wasn’t in my sentence.
Jhonnie Siggie
18th April 2010, 21:32
@Patrickl – Thanks for this linke :)
BS
18th April 2010, 20:04
That second safety car was a bit of a shame and felt really artificial, even if it made the race an awesome spectacle. I’m glad button won, he really deserved it.
Again solid job by Lotus and Kovalainen. I really like seeing Heikki so motivated there, must give the team a lot of motivation as well. Hopefully this will turn out to be a good learning path for him as a driver. Of the new teams the Lotus crew really seem to have a good philosophy behind their startup, I hope they’ll have caught on to the back of the rest a bit more than we all expect when we go back to Europe. :)
djdaveyp
18th April 2010, 20:12
I can’t help but feel the second safety car was totally unnecessary, but I shan’t complain too much as it helped hammy loads!
David BR
18th April 2010, 20:22
The lines on the first 7 laps of the Lap Chart tell you everything, pure chaos! Great stuff Keith.
charlie
18th April 2010, 20:28
deploying the safety car was suspicious to say the least. there had been races with far more debris on the track than from Alguersuari’s broken wing today. Then no safety car was needed.
looks to me like it was a plan to help other drivers.
shouldn’t the safety car rule be modified to provide for logging time differences before the deployment of the SC and then using this data in the final calculation when the race is over.
Mark
18th April 2010, 21:22
Exactly…very suspicious….
Button, Rosberg and others made a fantastic call staying out on slicks and gained a huge advantage…. But of course that advantage was “bad for the show”… so I bet Bernie was glad when that advantage was totally wiped out by the safety car…. an unnecessary safety car at that.
The debris on the track could have been cleared under flags… at least they should have tried for at least one lap rather than just deploying the safety car immediately.
There are far too many safety cars in F1 these days.
gpfan
19th April 2010, 0:00
“Exactly…very suspicious….”
Yes….. Very, very suspicious!
I’ve heard that Charlie (Whiting)
owes Flavio money!
Cheers
Pat Symonds
Kie
18th April 2010, 20:34
How did Alguersuari break his wing? looked like he hit one of the Hormone Replacement Therapy Cars?
RateF1
18th April 2010, 21:31
I just spent some time analysing this, and based on the 6 or 7 frames of image that was given over the feed, you can see by the car colour and the drivers helmet, that Alguersuari hit Senna
Kie
18th April 2010, 22:30
Aah right… thanks
JR
18th April 2010, 20:37
Are there any thoughts on Alonso’s alleged jumping of the start. I replayed the one camera angle Speed TV Provided in slo-mo and could see absolutely no evidence of movement before there lights went out.
Andy
18th April 2010, 20:44
JR – the World Feed on the BBC showed a shot from the start control room where you can clearly see Alonso jump the start (it was a 3/4 view of the grid) and straight away you saw Charlie Whiting’s hand point at Alonso. Alonso clearly knew he’d jumped the start as he backed off and then (as Brundle pointed out) just carried on hoping to get as much distance ahead of the RBR’s before he was called in to the pits.
I didn’t notice it on the front view of the grid, but from the other angles it was very clear.
sato113
19th April 2010, 0:27
or perhaps ALO was just spot on perfect? it does look like a close call from the onboard shot.
Lachie
19th April 2010, 2:43
I mentioned this in another thread. If they luck into guessing the start spot on are they fine? Cos they would certainly look to be getting an unfair advantage.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
18th April 2010, 20:45
Well he admitted it himself so I guess that’s good enough!:
JR
19th April 2010, 3:14
Thanks, guys, for the information. I’ve been fretting about this all day :)
Tifosi, Tifosa!
statix
18th April 2010, 20:47
few questions about safty car:
1) why did it went out (alg parts were lost mostly in pitlane)
2) why it stayed soooo long, until petrov and the rest got top 3.
3) what was the sense on SC, even if there were any parts on the track. petrov and the rest still pushed to get top3. so SC slowed them down only on last SC lap.
very very strange. i think someone had a bussiness to make race interesting again :)
ganmarau
18th April 2010, 20:57
Exactly ! Thank You !
David BR
19th April 2010, 1:07
Iffy indeed, not that I minded. I’m sure Button’s bunching of everyone before the SC pitted (which verged on the comical) was directly related to this fact though!
ganmarau
18th April 2010, 20:56
I can smell bulls..t. Can someone tell me but honestly what was that safety car doing on the track ? Those 2 or 3 debris made them coming in and stay for 2 or 3 laps ? It must be a joke…
macahan
19th April 2010, 3:00
From my understanding from what SpeedTV indicated was that there had been a lot of gravel kicked up on the track.
JR
19th April 2010, 3:19
This is correct. I saw the brief clip shot of the cornerworkers clearing the gravel mixed with fiberglass parts. The corner was a minefield if not impassible. And it was soaked.
I would rather drive through Boston potholes after a snowstorm.
Dan M
19th April 2010, 4:47
Yes, and it was right on the right hander. They would have surely gone straight off if they did not make an attempt to clean.
Ned Flanders
18th April 2010, 21:10
Did Sutil and Barrichello both lose their front wings on lap 1? I didn’t see it
rampante
18th April 2010, 21:35
The safety car was out because debris was on the pit entrance. If it is on the track drivers can drive round it and this can’t be done in the pit lane. Can we drop the conspiracy rubbish please. I think that if it had been a dry race and no driver was expected in the pits it would have been cleared without the safety car.
James_mc
18th April 2010, 22:00
That is a very good point. Although I did think they were rather slow in actually removing the debris on the track, I presume it was much more difficult at the pit-lane entrance. You wouldn’t fancy being in the McLaren garage if someone’s front wheels burst on carbon fibre and the “Buemi-ed” into the pitlane, even at 100kph…
SoLiD
18th April 2010, 21:55
As many here I watched the race with live timing next to me. And again I was baffled how fast Hamilton was in clean air. 2 to 3 seconds faster then most other drivers.
Great race pace in that McLaren. I do hope Hamilton get’s his victory soon as he deserves one with his great driving!
F1SA
18th April 2010, 21:56
Was boring from the start for me since most of the focus was on Alonso jumping the gun. Got better when Jenson, Rosberg and the Renault boys kept going while the rest changed tyres and messed that up.
Second safety car spoiled a great race in my opinion, but nearly made up for it when Jenson slowed down to a standstill. I have never seen so many cars bunched up that close, unless being on the M20 ofc.
Vettel vs Lewis was an interesting tussle glad they both didn’t get punished for that. I also feel Alonso got away from a decent punishment, which he should of had since the drive through (I think) wasn’t enough to hurt his point collecting.
Congratulations to Button, Lewis and Rosberg getting on the podium and keeping the season “STILL” interesting.
James_mc
18th April 2010, 22:02
I felt that the drive-through was adequate, it demoted him back down the field to negate any advantage gained by accidentally jumping the gun and then punished him a little for doing so.
Couldn’t have been intentional because as was shown it only has a negative impact on your race.
F1SA
18th April 2010, 22:27
true, true you would have to be some piece of work to do it on purpose.
I guess it does feel all different with past drivers giving their view of things to the stewards.
Maybe all the fans like me should try to change with the new rules and just take it on the chin when it doesn’t go their way.
James_mc
18th April 2010, 23:30
You would also have to be exceedingly dim to think you could get away with it in today’s sensor-infested, camera-laden F1! :-D
F1SA
18th April 2010, 23:35
ha ha very true.
gpfan
19th April 2010, 0:05
“You would also have to be exceedingly dim to think you could get away with it in today’s sensor-infested, camera-laden F1”
Or, with those meddle-some teenagers.
andy wants a Scooby-snack!
;)
sato113
19th April 2010, 0:25
that is one messy lap chart!!!
how come the lap 1 positions change chart shows KOB as remaining in the same position? he crashed and surely lost loads of places?….
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
19th April 2010, 8:22
He didn’t have a position at the end of lap one because he was out of the race, so there’s no difference to plot.
sato113
19th April 2010, 16:55
oh, cheers!!! btw, where are the adverts on the site? i wanna click them to support ya.
sato113
19th April 2010, 0:40
poor old PdLR and KOB. especially KOB who is probably a great driver but hasn’t had the chance to show it yet! all of his retirements have been beyond his control.
Rob
19th April 2010, 1:06
disappointed at the stewards inconsistency with the hamilton/vettel pit incident given webber’s penalty for an unsafe release at spa last year..
DaveW
19th April 2010, 3:20
Brilliant work Keith. But I am spending more time on the site and less on my work so all of these terrific analyses are costing me.
I think the pit-entry debris theory is correct. And the emergency of lead-killing events is part of the risk you assume when you expend the car to build a lead.
Anyway, I think its a bit unfair to say all Hamilton and Alonso needed to catch the lead cars was the safety car. They both still had to pass several cars to gain their positions, and Hamilton came from several positions back on the restart to the point of bearing down on Button in the last laps. Those two guys, it is clear, have uncommon skills.
I for one was desperate to see the duel between the McLarens, in the wet, on simiarly busted intermediates. I wanted to see Whitmarsh wringing his hands because I’m certain that Hamilton would have become profoundly deaf in both ears if the hold-station radio call had come over the radio.
Johnny86
19th April 2010, 2:30
Exciting race this weekend….even though its good for the sport it has taken the public expectation to new high…something which barceleno,i doubt ,will be able to fulfull…so expect the ‘f1 being boring’-gate to make its grand entrance in three weeks…
VXR
19th April 2010, 12:46
Barcelona isn’t famous for its great racing and it’s the only track on the calendar that most teams have some 2010 setup data for. Yawn..
Johnny86
19th April 2010, 2:31
I meant barcelona
BNK Racing
19th April 2010, 3:02
a bit off topic….but did any one watch the race via SPEED? i felt their coverage is way below par compared to BBC. when the second safety car was out i had no idea why, because they had gone to a commercial break….although i assumed it was because of buemi eventually. also the fact that they seem to go to commercials every 5mins missing key position changes etc makes the race more confusing. and while i have them under a microscope, the commentators have to correct themselves continuously during a race with the wrong facts which becomes really annoying!!
Dan M
19th April 2010, 4:51
Ah, I see this is your first experience watching SPEED…
Its been this way for years, wait until FOX broadcasts the British GP 5hrs after it happens cutting the interviews to show NASCAR practice.
JR
19th April 2010, 3:37
“but did any one watch the race via SPEED? i felt their coverage is way below par compared to BBC.”
SpeedTV is absolutely horrible compared to other coverage.
I saw one writer here mention that the coverage he watched was dominated by talk of the Alonso drive-thru. Not so with Speed. The barely mentioned it when it happened. They ignored it the rest of the race. They played only one camera angle which showed no jumping then didn’t wuestion the stewards’ decision when it happened only a few laps later.
I hate Steve Matchett and wish he would at least talk less if not die (okay maybe that’s too harsh … no, he really needs to go).
Bob Varsha is okay, he’s more the all-around Speed anchor and is always deferential and humble. He knows what he doesn’t know and that he lacks any particular expertise.
I like the new pit-guy and the the British guy that filled in for Varsha last week, I think it is “Leigh Diffey”?
But the pit-guy isn’t a choice of SpeedTV. He got the job when that complete sap, Peter Windsor left to try to start F1USA. Oh! Thank The Lord in Heaven for that.
And David Hobbs. David Hobbs is good and funny and has a wealth of experience as a driver and commentator, but I fear last year was the end of the line. He increasingly shows signs of early-onset Alzheimer’s.
He can’t tell the difference between Alonso and Massa when the numbers and readouts on on the screen in front of him and the two are 7 places apart. He has this problem with all the drivers and teams. This is bizarre to me because this is HIS job. Not mine. I’m the spectator.
I mean Jesus. Massa and Hamilton wear yellow helmets. Schu wears a red one. This isn’t that hard. Yesterday he couldn’t tell the difference between Aglasueri (spelling) and Buemi. Okay, maybe I’m making too big a deal of it. But it is annoying.
SpeedTV sucks, but I have no other choice, unless I actually wanted to fly to Shanghai and sit in the rain.
US_Peter
19th April 2010, 5:14
Lol. I’m not that bothered by it, but I know exactly what you mean about David Hobbs, I’m constantly pointing out to my girlfriend during races that he’s in fact talking about the opposite team member in most cases when he refers to a driver. It’s gotten to the point where I just find it funny, and am genuinely surprised if he gets a driver right. Once in a while he even notices his mistake and corrects himself, or Matchett will correct him.
mvi
19th April 2010, 13:27
However, Steve Matchett’s books about his own F1 experiences as a mechanic are very entertaining.
Maybe you would consider subscribing for a UK proxy address so you can watch the F1 races on your laptop? The beauty of it is that it is location-independent and you get all the BBC pre-race, race and post-race from their website. Worth it at £5 per month. (There may be cheaper ones, or free ones, I don’t know.)
K. Chandra Shekhar
19th April 2010, 4:27
Just before the last lap Lewis was told on the radio that heavy rain was expected and to drive carefully. Is this a coded one NOT to race Button?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
19th April 2010, 10:49
I have my suspicions…
Gwion Daniel
19th April 2010, 14:17
I was wondering that, but since Hamilton was still setting quick laps I thought nothing more of it.
JohnBt
19th April 2010, 7:59
So looks like there’s no need to ammend the rules for 2010. Fantastic China GP race.
There are more than enough comments from this race. All I want to say is, I vote Alonso as driver of the China GP, a repeat from Malaysia. I shan’t say the IFFY things.
Prisoner Monkeys
19th April 2010, 8:27
Who’d have thought that Shanghai could hae given us one of the best races of the modern era?
We’ve been a bit spoiled of late: three Grands Prix, two great – and one good – races.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
19th April 2010, 8:48
Thanks the rain gods. I suspect come Catalunya they won’t be smiling on us…
2 Minutes To Midnight
19th April 2010, 12:26
Furthermore, the circuit is boring…(I think last year, Mark Webber said the circuit is boring if I remember correctly)
John H
19th April 2010, 11:53
No mention of Schumacher in the analysis – that speaks volumes.
The guy is too old to drive without TC. It’s even clearer in the wet.
Bren
19th April 2010, 11:59
Massa was the poor one again. as fernando caught him before the SC despite his penalty
yet again fernando has had troubles(this time his own fault) but still fernando has been able to catch massa very quickly. in oz alonso was last and yet 20 laps later he was massa tail. not good performances from massa so far
2 Minutes To Midnight
19th April 2010, 12:30
I suspect Ferrari is going to replace Massa with either Kubica, Vettel, or Ferrari’s academic drivers (Mirko Bortolotti or Jules Bianchi.)
rashid hasan
19th April 2010, 15:55
go hamilton go. there is no such thing as hamilton disease. it’s hamilton phenomenon. tifosi tifosa? who cares who they are…only themselves
David A
19th April 2010, 16:41
See, comments like these targeted at other F1 fans like that are why everyone else likes to call it “hamilton disease”.
Nova
19th April 2010, 19:32
Very nice site, informative w/the chart/analysis. Good race, yet the weather played a big part. Great drive from Alonso although he messed up his own race at the start..on some of the comments, on Rosberg, he really hasnt raced anyone yet, by good calls from the pit and staying out of trouble, he managed 2 podiums…on Button, where did he finish the last “dry” race? On LH, sure he does some great passes, kills his tires being “spectacular” and has nothing left for the end..Kubiza is very good..Massa needs to up his game..on Shue, he’ll get used to the new F1..I have to watch on Speed, I like the guys, way too many commercials, especially with 2 laps to go..think they use the feed. If Alonso didnt jump the start, Im afraid he may have won this hands down.
martinb
19th April 2010, 20:33
I was interested in the speed trap data from Live Timing:
HAM 318
BAR 313
VET 310
MAS 310
ALG 308
ALO 307
Button is not on the list. Did he have a higher downforce setting than Hamilton, anticipating wetter conditions?
wasiF1
20th April 2010, 2:27
i thought that Hamilton was having a wet set up on Saturday?
martinb
19th April 2010, 20:39
Suggestions:
Put the Pit Stops chart in finishing order so we can see at a glance if some strategies were better than others.
Note the lap no’s the SC was deployed. On the interactive lap chart it’s not always clear whether a blip is due to the SC or the leader pitting. In fact, if SC periods could be greyed on the chart, that would be great.