Chinese GP 2013 - Race

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Hamilton has taken his first pole for Mercedes and there’s no sight of a Red Bull until the 5th row of the grid.  Mercedes, Ferrari and Lotus are taking the top spots with surprising Ricciardo 7th in the Toro Rosso.

Tyre degradation in the soft compound is so precarious that the last 3 qualifiers in Q3 (BUT, VET, HUL) didn’t go out in order to start the race in new med-primes.

If you got no points in QF you are not alone. Only reigning Champ Rocco secured 2 with HAM-ALO (1st-3rd)with 4 more of us with single scores (2 RAI/2nd, 2 ALO /3rd). I’m afraid we will get much the same for race day...

The grid:

HAM  RAI  ALO  ROS  MAS  GRO  RIC  BUT  VET  HUL

The options were so much faster than the primes that no one could even get to Q2 on medium-prime, the extreme situation keeping the track without cars until the last minutes of every session. Red Bull abandoned their traditional strategy of dialing the car to start at the front because they couldn’t make the soft tyres last “more than 5 laps” said Vettel ironically. Webber had a mechanical failure in Q2 and was sent to the back of the grid as he failed to provide a fuel sample. The Lotus ‘is not fast enough’ according Raikkonen despite his second place achievement, it seems to be the best chassis on prime tyres although nobody is quite sure how it will perform on race conditions.  The GP itself will be a step into the unknown, according to Rosberg “it’s more a question of how many corners you’re going to get (out of the tyres) rather than laps...”  

Our forecasting will be a nightmare but the show promises to be fantastic. The cars starting on options will catch and mix with the front runners that will have to stop early before they can open up a gap. In the end the race will be decided on tyre management as all the drivers are aware that if you want to push or race with others will only deteriorate your rubber. The whole picture promises an intriguing affair, but don’t expect great battles, this will be more a matter of patience and smooth driving.

The poleman has won 5 of the 9 editions of the Chinese GP. The 2 DRS zones are the start-finish straight and the long one at the back between corners 13 & 14. Expect 3 stops to cover the 56 laps, although many will try to do it 2.

This is getting harder every time!

Cato – ALO  HAM  RAI  VET  ROS  MAS 

Enjoy, good luck!

 

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