A great Chinese Grand Prix unfolded today, but we didn’t see much of the type of the inter team drama we saw in Malaysia. How did the team-mates fare this time out?
These are the rules to which the drivers are being judged.
Points system:
1 point is awarded to the driver who sets the faster lap.
3 points are awarded to the driver who performs best in qualifying.
5 points are awarded to the driver who performs best on raceday.
Marussia
Simple stuff, a whitewash for Bianchi in China, who continues to show talent beyond his Marussia. He consistently was the quickest of the Marussia/Caterham tail end, and it’s hard to imagine he will still be driving for a back end team next season. In Q1, the Toro Rosso drivers both needed two runs to beat Bianchi’s first time. Impressive. However, we must applaud Max Chilton for looking respectable this weekend. Only seven tenths off Bianchi’s Q1 time, as well as putting in a best race lap only four tenths slower than Jules shows improvement. Kudos to Max, let’s see if he can close the gap to his team-mate when we return to European rounds.
Fastest lap: 1-0 to Jules Bianchi (3-0 to Jules Bianchi)
Qualifying: 3-0 to Jules Bianchi (9-0 to Jules Bianchi)
Race: 5-0 to Jules Bianchi (15-0 to Jules Bianchi)
Marussia: 27-0 to Jules Bianchi
Caterham
Pic & Bianchi had a nice battle for 15th place throughout the race, which logically means that Pic gets the point for the race. In qualifying, Pic & Van Der Garde were separated by only 0.046 seconds, which shows an improvement from the Dutch driver. In the race, Pic was able to dip into the 1:41s, which Van Der Garde was unable to do. Good stuff from Pic again this weekend.
Fastest lap: 1-0 to Charles Pic (3-0 to Charles Pic)
Qualifying: 3-0 to Charles Pic (6-3 to Charles Pic)
Race: 5-0 to Charles Pic (15-0 to Charles Pic)
Caterham: 24-3 to Charles Pic
Toro Rosso:
The current Toro Rosso drivers have a great ability to be on the circuit for large portions of time, without anyone actually really noticing. For the first time since Jamie Alguersuari, an STR driver has delivered a performance significantly better than his team-mate, which did not go unnoticed by other drivers. Daniel Ricciardo had a great weekend, qualifying a fantastic seventh place. Hearing Jenson Button say ‘wow’ over the radio about Ricciardo making it to Q1 shows how impressive Daniel was. He was almost a second faster than Vergne in Q2, but one wonders why Toro Rosso didn’t opt to run the medium tyre in Q3, like Red Bull did with Vettel. After some good qualifying performances last year, it’s likely that if Ricciardo had messed up the race again, he could fail to be taken seriously by Red Bull. However, he didn’t mess up, the race went well, and despite a front wing change, came home in seventh, and was closing on Massa towards the end. Vergne got into a collision with Webber, which is likely to result in a pay raise from Helmut Marko. Vergne didn’t do anything wrong, but why was he driving so ponderously if he wasn’t letting Mark through?
Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Jean-Eric Vergne (3-0 to Jean-Eric Vergne)
Qualifying: 3-0 to Daniel Ricciardo (6-3 to Daniel Ricciardo)
Race: 5-0 to Daniel Ricciardo (10-5 to Jean-Eric Vergne)
Toro Rosso: 16-11 to Jean-Eric Vergne
Sauber:
After having a reasonably equal driver pairing for last few seasons, Sauber are now a one man team. Hulkenberg had a great weekend overall, even if he admitted feeling ‘mixed emotions’ after leading the race in the first half. Making it through to Q3 and sitting out the session to start on mediums looked inspired at the time, but ultimately didn’t work out, as the Sauber didn’t like the softs on raceday. Hulkenberg appears, like Bianchi, to be of a higher ability than the car he is driving. It’s only a matter of time until he is in a better car. It was interesting to note that, starting behind Vettel on the same strategy, Hulkenberg actually led Vettel at the halfway point. Possibly a replacement for Perez at McLaren if he doesn’t work out. The other Mexican on the grid, Gutierrez, continued to put on a poor display, and forgot how brakes work during the race, which is unfortunate at the end of a particularly long straight when following other cars.
Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Nico Hulkenberg (2-1 to Nico Hulkenberg)
Qualifying: 3-0 to Nico Hulkenberg (9-0 to Nico Hulkenberg)
Race: 5-0 to Nico Hulkenberg (10-5 to Nico Hulkenberg)
Sauber: 21-6 to Nico Hulkenberg
Williams:
Dear, oh dear. The tagline to William’s 2013 campaign so far, and still no reason to rebrand it. Still quite comfortably the slowest of the midfield runners, Maldonado put in a good performance in qualifying to beat Bottas by half a second, but the only other car he beat was Vergne. During the race, the Williams had rubbish pace on the soft tyres, and fell away, Maldonado barely holding off Bianchi towards race end. Bottas did better, beating Pastor home, and setting the third fastest lap of the race on the way. Pastor may be disheartened to be driving a terrible car compared to last year, but he needs to start beating his team-mate again to ensure he doesn’t disappear from the sport.
Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Valterri Bottas (3-0 to Valtteri Bottas)
Qualifying: 3-0 to Pastor Maldonado (6-3 to Pastor Maldonado)
Race: 5-0 to Valterri Bottas (15-0 to Valtteri Bottas)
Williams: 24-3 to Valterri Bottas
Force India:
Is there a needle between Sutil & Di Resta? The race certainly implied there is, with Sutil running Di Resta off the track leaving the hairpin. Speaking after the race, Sutil blamed Di Resta for the collision, which is a little hard to qualify, seeing as Paul had to fully drive off the circuit to not have a serious collision. Adrian didn’t do anything wrong to be eliminated from the race, but Paul recovered nicely from his off course excursion to score some valuable points, setting the seventh fastest lap on the way. After his stellar return in Australia, Sutil hasn’t looked any better than Paul, and the Scotsman will be pleased with the weekend.
Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Paul Di Resta (2-1 to Adrian Sutil)
Qualifying: 3-0 to Paul Di Resta (6-3 to Paul Di Resta)
Race: 5-0 to Paul Di Resta (10-5 to Paul Di Resta)
Force India: 17-10 to Paul Di Resta
McLaren:
The difficult thing about having Button lead the McLaren team, is being able to tell if the car is awful or not. Last year, if the team hadn’t had Hamilton, the team would have looked dreadful for a large portion of the year. Is Button maximising the car, or is he under performing, like he did last year? The barometer of Hamilton has been lost, and Perez doesn’t look like he is going to reach the level that McLaren would like. One point scored by the Mexican since his unveiling as a Woking driver doesn’t inspire confidence, and that underconfidence is manifesting itself on track, with Perez trailing his replacement at Sauber, Nico Hulkenberg, home in what is undoubtedly a slower car than the Sauber. Perez looked there or thereabouts with Jenson in Australia & Malaysia, but nowhere near him in China. Is Sergio a Heikki/Giancarlo, or a Raikkonen/Hamilton? Right now, he looks very much like a driver who can’t handle being at a front running team.
Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Jenson Button (2-1 to Jenson Button)
Qualifying: 3-0 to Jenson Button (9-0 to Jenson Button)
Race: 5-0 to Jenson Button (15-0 to Jenson Button)
McLaren: 26-1 to Jenson Button
Lotus:
Raikkonen gave Romain Grosjean a complete drubbing in China, out qualifying the Frenchman, and then leading him home by over forty seconds, despite having a beauty spot on his nose. Kimi spent a large portion of the race behind Hamilton, and appeared like he could have gone quicker ahead of him, particularly without the damage. With the quarter of a second of pace that Kimi didn’t have, according to Lotus, the gap could have been even greater. What has happened to Grosjean’s pace? He has been complaining about chassis problems, but it looks like he can’t handle the way the car is set up. Back in the McLaren days, both David Coulthard & Juan Pablo Montoya said that the setups Kimi ran, were virtually undriveable for them, so has the shift in focus towards Kimi at Lotus, cost Romain dearly? Even more interesting is how do Lotus respond? If Romain can’t drive a Kimi car, do they change the car, or the driver?
Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Kimi Raikkonen (2-1 to Kimi Raikkonen)
Qualifying: 3-0 to Kimi Raikkonen (9-0 to Kimi Raikkonen)
Race: 5-0 to Kimi Raikkonen (10-5 to Kimi Raikkonen)
Lotus: 21-6 to Kimi Raikkonen
Mercedes:
Unfortunately for Nico Rosberg, getting good points positions isn’t going to be good enough, even if your car doesn’t break down. Lewis is driving very well this year, and snatched pole at ‘Nico’s track’, while Nico could only line up 4th, almost half a second slower. In the race, the Merc was probably slower than the Lotus behind him, but Lewis held off Kimi very nicely, and gamely held onto him in the final stint of the race. Nico’s suspension failed, which is never helpful for getting good results, but he was behind Lewis at the time, so it’s a whitewash for Hamilton. Nico has to be careful not to let the extra media attention to Lewis, and lack of results, get to him, or he mentally will become Number Two.
Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Lewis Hamilton (2-1 to Lewis Hamilton)
Qualifying: 3-0 to Lewis Hamilton (9-0 to Lewis Hamilton)
Race: 5-0 to Lewis Hamilton (10-5 to Lewis Hamilton)
Mercedes: 21-6 to Lewis Hamilton
Ferrari:
Fernando may have joked sarcastically about lying awake at night at the prospect of being outqualified by Felipe Massa in China, but you can be sure that it was a genuine worry for the Spaniard. No need to worry though, as the China-spec Fernando was the top-spec model we all know and love (or hate, depending on your perspective). Showing a canny instinct to hold off his passes until after the DRS detection zone, showed how clued in Fernando was this weekend, as well as showing an imperious pace. There was no competition from behind, with Felipe fading badly after a strong opening stint. Hearing Andrea Stella casually tell Fernando there was no need to push, to Alonso’s laidback ‘I’m not pushing’ shows imperious pace, as he was the fastest man on the track at the time. The only possible threat to Fernando could have been an undamaged Kimi, but that threat wasn’t there this time. Felipe was falling into the clutches of Ricciardo towards the chequered flag, unimpressive, even if Felipe will feel aggrieved being kept out on track for too long in the first stint.
Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Fernando Alonso (2-1 to Fernando Alonso)
Qualifying: 3-0 to Fernando Alonso (6-3 to Felipe Massa)
Race: 5-0 to Fernando Alonso (10-5 to Fernando Alonso)
Ferrari: 15-12 to Felipe Massa
Red Bull:
All eyes on Red Bull this weekend, but the anticipated battle between the warring team-mates never unfolded. Conspiracy theorists loved Webber’s Q2 woes, which Mark seemed to play up to by not ruling conspiracies out outright. Red Bull looked out of sorts this weekend, with silly errors like underfuelling, as well as not attaching Webber’s right rear wheel properly at his stop for repairs. It speaks volumes that Red Bull opted to try a riskier strategy of running the medium tyre in Q3, knowing that pole position was not possible. Vettel had a great drive, if a little tentative in his first stint on the medium tyres, falling behind Hulkenberg. Watching him storm after Hamilton & Raikkonen over the final laps was a joy, even just to see if the tyres would suddenly hit the cliff, as he got lap times out of 5 lap old softs. Webber had a good opening, climbing through the field, and was leading Vettel when he collided with Vergne. A silly misjudgement from Mark, which he held his hands up to, but was it his young German team-mate lurking behind him that made him rush a risky manoeuvre? The dynamic at Red Bull is interesting, in that Mark appears to be the straight talking ‘tough’ guy, but seems to almost be afraid of Sebastian on the track. Is the concept of the ruthless, cold attitude Sebastian has shown towards him so alien to Mark’s no nonsense approach, that Mark can’t handle it?
Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Sebastian Vettel (2-1 to Sebastian Vettel)
Qualifying: 3-0 to Sebastian Vettel (9-0 to Sebastian Vettel)
Race: 5-0 to Sebastian Vettel (15-0 to Sebastian Vettel)
Red Bull: 26-1 to Sebastian Vettel
