I came to the conclusion that Malaysia was a great race but China was in a different league. It had twists, turns, overtaking and controversy plus some great drives from lots of drivers sadly not Renault's Petrov and Heidfield who had two great weeks only to waste an opportunity to build on them. They kind of had a weekend to forget starting in qualifying when Petrov actually hindered his team mate by breaking down right as Heidfield was about to put in his only chance of a flying lap. It didnt pick up for them in the race either, both finishing outside of the top 10.
After Saturdays qualifying which saw an unxpected number of young drivers in the top 10 shootout knocking out experienced drivers like Barrichello, Schumacher, and Webber.
Webber got it all wrong on Saturday picking the wrong tyres and paying the ultimate price by only managing to qualify in 18th place. Alguersuari qualified in his best posiiton if the season along with Buemi qualifying in 7th and 9th respectively.
It was all building up to an exciting race as you knew the experienced drivers had all the work to do to get past the rookies. Hamilton left it late starting on race day. When every other driver was preparing on the grid, Hamilton was still in the garage with his team panicking trying to get the engine to tick over. They came to conclusion that somehow the engine had flooded. The time was counting down and fast for Hamilton. He managed to get out onto the track just in time, another 35 seconds more and he would have had to start from the pit lane. After doing all the hard work to qualify on the second row to have to start from the pit lane would have be devastating for Hamilton and would not have helped his title credentials. However he did roll out of the garage with seconds to spare to mount a challenge next to Rosberg.
Vettel was hoping to continue his good form of leading the field for the 109 out of the 114 laps so far this season. However he would not make it 110 for a while as both McClaren's wanted to fight it out at the front for a change. Button getting a better start than Vettel and Hamilton moving past him on the first corner left the young German down in third place and having to hold of a strong challenge from Rosberg.
I nominated Mark Webber for the driver of the day in Malaysia but that drive was nothing compared to his drive in China. This was the drive of his life!
Starting from p18 he was just hoping to get into the points atleast and probably would have settled for 2 points at the end of the day. He drove calmly and effieciently using his well managed tyres and knowing he was on different tyres than everyone else he could last longer than the surrounding cars. A tactic that didnt pay off in qualifying reeped rewards on race day.
Although it didnt happen straight away as he still found himself at p17 after 15 laps. Both Webber and Schumacher started near the back of the field but both moving up the field throughout the race. But it was the Australian who waited for the right moment to overtake Schumacher and continue to ride up the ranks.
As lap 50 clocked over Webber found himself in 7th place and went into the pit for fresh tyres knowing that he needed a new set soft tyres to catch the podium potentials up and he only had 6 laps to do it in. He had to overtake Rosberg which he did with no trouble at all which took him onto the tail of Button.
Button's race engineer said over the radio that Webber was catching him up fast and on his tail which led David Coulthard to say the quote of the day "The only way he could have said that any scarier was if he said it in the dark". Webber obviously obliged and overtook Button with sufficient ease. Webber must have thought he was dreaming as he had gradually moved up 15 places from his starting position to end of on the podium.
Buttons day was one to forget not only loosing a place on the podium he looked so certain to take but he also looked a total wally when he went into the the pit being followed by Vettel only to stop in the wrong pit. Holding Vettel up in the process and not doing his dignity any favours.
Whilst Button was busy embarrassing himself his McClaren team mate Hamilton drove well all day to put Malyasia behind him, and also put any early doubters that he is not mentally up for it to shove a simple message in their face "He wants to win more than anyone". It showed when just when he went up to the podium he has a few moments to console himself, he has a human side after all after most f1 pundits comparing him to a machine.
Vettel said in the press conference after the race "I was the only driver with two stops on the podium". After three races the teams now know that two stops is not the right strategy with the tyres degrading so quickly. Mark has proved that over the last two races the more you pit the better.
It all added up to a great race in which I can recall atleast 6 drivers being in the lead throughout the race. All the "No Overtaking" talk was truly stamped out.
Driver of the Day: Mark Webber again!
Wally of the day: Jenson Button
We have Turkey next in 3 weeks time, it is gonna be a long 3 weeks for me without the thought of F1 entertaining me on the weekend. Luckily we have the highlights of China to remind us to fill the void.
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