Chinese Grand Prix 2011, Shanghai International Circuit - Race 3/19

Really impressed with Force India and Toro Rosso today. Both seem pretty good at high speed tracks *a trait for Force India over the last few years*
 
lol @ Webber.

Can't believe how far ahead Vettel is. Good thing McLaren have a little bit of pace or this wouldn't even have been a competition.

CS||nuTs said:
Few words,little action, McLaren think they are working hard to catch us, trust me, we are working twice as hard to stay ahead.
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I hope they do catch you tbh. At this rate the championship will be over and everyone will switch off. You are so far ahead it isn't even a race tbh. Still, will be interesting to watch Webber fight through the field.
 
Sutil must be hating Di resta, he's making the senior driver look bad.

Quite a crazy qualifying, the last few minutes of the second session could've been mistaken for the race.
 
Not quite, he used 1 set on the 2nd session and 2 in the last session, however the second set of the last session didn't do a complete lap, not sure how well that will preserve them though...

If it's a 3-stop race tomorrow then Hamilton is looking good on the tyre front, just a shame the Red Bull is again a massive amount quicker (except Webbers, that one's slow :p)

Although we saw in Australia a similar gap (with similar-ish cooler temps) during Qualifying and the McLarens were able to be much closer on Race Pace but Vettel is still gonna win unless either of the McLarens gets a stunning start...

Kinda good to see the renaults quite far back so their uber starts won't affect the Vettel/Button/Hamilton battle into T1, on the other hand Petrov looked genuinely quick today so a shame for him
 
The worrying thing is, Red Bull have been notoriously slow on high speed circuits because they've been relatively under-powered, at least according to Horner. If China is one of the circuits with the longest straights and is considered a fairly high speed track, what are the other teams going to do against the Bulls come tracks that AREN'T high speed, where Red Bull has been even better? Is it time to start talking about Vettel getting some records for longest winning streak and most wins in a season, yet?
 
CaptainRAVE said:
The worrying thing is, Red Bull have been notoriously slow on high speed circuits because they've been relatively under-powered, at least according to Horner. If China is one of the circuits with the longest straights and is considered a fairly high speed track, what are the other teams going to do against the Bulls come tracks that AREN'T high speed, where Red Bull has been even better? Is it time to start talking about Vettel getting some records for longest winning streak and most wins in a season, yet?
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I don't think the Renault engine is as low down on power as they/RB would have you believe, rumours seem to think about 10bhp which is hardly a massive margin,

Notice that they were quite low down on power, and not particularly fuel efficient, a few years ago, yet due to the wonderful 'freeze' on engines they've been able to alter it for 'reliability' which has quite by coincidence increased power and improved fuel economy, dunno how that happened...

From what I remember seeing on the on-board at the end of the long straight Heidfeld was doing ~322, Webber without KERS was doing 316, yes slower but considering that's at the end of one of, if not the, longest straight on the calendar they can more than make up that time by a few not-quite-fully-stiff aero parts :p
 
they need to sort out the ridiculous rules... glad i didnt wake up for qualy this morning...

ridiculous end to Q2 if they had any sense they would change that ridiculous rule and add an extra laps worth of time to the clock if someone stops the session and there isnt enough time to outlap+flying lap with enough time to spare for the cars to spread out
 
arknor said:
they need to sort out the ridiculous rules... glad i didnt wake up for qualy this morning...

ridiculous end to Q2 if they had any sense they would change that ridiculous rule and add an extra laps worth of time to the clock if someone stops the session and there isnt enough time to outlap+flying lap with enough time to spare for the cars to spread out
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Schumi out braked himself, get over it.
 
arknor said:
ridiculous end to Q2 if they had any sense they would change that ridiculous rule and add an extra laps worth of time to the clock if someone stops the session and there isnt enough time to outlap+flying lap with enough time to spare for the cars to spread out
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There was plenty enough time before the red flag came out for everyone to set a decent lap-time. The drivers didn't need to leave it that late. Anyone that got caught out by it can't have any complaints.
 
arknor said:
they need to sort out the ridiculous rules... glad i didnt wake up for qualy this morning...

ridiculous end to Q2 if they had any sense they would change that ridiculous rule and add an extra laps worth of time to the clock if someone stops the session and there isnt enough time to outlap+flying lap with enough time to spare for the cars to spread out
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Yup. And all that weaving to supposedly warm the tyres up was equally doubling up as blocking/impeding. The damn hypocrites.
 
JRS said:
There was plenty enough time before the red flag came out for everyone to set a decent lap-time. The drivers didn't need to leave it that late. Anyone that got caught out by it can't have any complaints.
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Yup, that is all part of the gamble. Leaving it until last minute is always a risk. Get a decent lap in earlier.
 
JRS said:
There was plenty enough time before the red flag came out for everyone to set a decent lap-time. The drivers didn't need to leave it that late. Anyone that got caught out by it can't have any complaints.
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so how come resta made it over the line by less than a second? thats not more than enough time :rolleyes:

and with everyone running so close they are losing downforce in the corners which is exactly what we want in qualifying :rolleyes:
CaptainRAVE said:
Yup, that is all part of the gamble. Leaving it until last minute is always a risk. Get a decent lap in earlier.
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schumacher and rosberg were both on track doing the outlap at around 4 minutes remaining.
Q2 is only 15 minutes long that is a large chunk of the session reminaing not the last minute and with limited tyres available it doesnt pay to be out early burning up soft sets of tyres.

Q2 offers only enough time for about 11 laps at this circuit (11 laps total not flying so with in and out laps and softs only realisticly lasting for 1 flying lap so with someone stopping the seesion while your already on an outlap you lose a massive amount of time)

Yup, that is all part of the gamble. Leaving it until last minute is always a risk. Get a decent lap in earlier.
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only petrox and heidfeld didnt get a decent lap in early do you think what was it 11 cars went back out with 2 minutes on the clock for fun or to impede others?
 
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arknor said:
schumacher and rosberg were both on track doing the outlap at around 4 minutes remaining.
Q2 is only 15 minutes long that is a large chunk of the session reminaing not the last minute and with limited tyres available it doesnt pay to be out early burning up soft sets of tyres.

Q2 offers only enough time for about 11 laps at this circuit (11 laps total not flying so with in and out laps and softs only realisticly lasting for 1 flying lap so with someone stopping the seesion while your already on an outlap you lose a massive amount of time)
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I really don't see the problem, all of the teams and drivers face the same restriction. It was just bad luck, it will (and probably has) happened to others.

Anyway, at least it spices up quali a little bit for us :)
 
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