Chinese Grand Prix 2012, Shanghai - Race 3/20

Oh and well done Rosberg. That was a fantastic lap.
He showed MSc who the "boss" is.
Take note, that if MSc was in his prime, Rosberg would've stood virtually no chance of getting pole. ;)
 
This forum needs a 'round of appause' smiliey. Brilliant lap by Rosberg.

And a front 2 rows of Rosberg, Schumacher, Kobayashi and Raikkonen... Who'd have thunk it!

Looks good for tomorrow!
 
utajoker said:
i bet button isnt too please to be starting just 1 place ahead of hamilton considering hammy has a 5 place drop.
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1 place? It'll be two won't it?

1 Rosberg
2 Schumi
3 Kobayashi
4 Kimi
5 Button
6 Webber
7 Hamilton
8 Perez
9 Alonso
10 Grosjean
 
I'm gonna go for a Kimi win.

Hope Kobayashi does well too, I think Mercedes will struggle to keep anyone on the podium.
 
sunama said:
Oh and well done Rosberg. That was a fantastic lap.
He showed MSc who the "boss" is.
Take note, that if MSc was in his prime, Rosberg would've stood virtually no chance of getting pole. ;)
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Meh, there really is no way to know, Rosberg last season often outqualified Schumi but was less good overall with race pace. He sets up his car for quali, which in this case would mean gear ratios set for heavy DRS use, that might be great with double DRS in quali but a heck of a lot less effective in the race.

Without knowing what strategys they are on, what setup, who knows.

I do wonder with such a gap and much more importantly, everyone else bottled up from half a second behind including his team mate if, there has been talk of them not actually using the double drs in qualifying/race maybe because they were worried about being docked points, after getting a proper challenge and an all clear. This could be the first time they've used it in qualifying and so this is could be the first time we've really seen the effect of double DRS.

As for tyres, its a hard question Merc suck on tyres, but that's when they are chasing the guys in front as best as possible. They are hard to pass and are the guys being chased this time. Maybe they can make tyres last simply by being very conservative and backing everyone up while being a big unpassable roadblock with the best DRS of anyone anywhere near the front?

I doubt it, but it would be pretty funny to see them sneak around the track at a snails pace yet blow everyone away in all the main passing places.

EDIT:- Don't get me wrong, its still an awesome lap by Rossberg, and still not at all bad for Schumi, he still came 3rd, well ahead of button(the bestest driver around according to some), damn close to Hamilton, ahead of the Red Bulls. Merc have done very well, and I don't even remotely blame a driver for one bad qualifying lap, it happens to everyone, with NO exceptions. Schumi not having a great lap and Rossberg having a essentially perfect one can well account for the time difference, but I think, based on last season and Rossberg's almost preference for qualifying, I get the feeling there is also slightly different setups optimised for race/quali playing at least some part in that half second gap. For instance, Mclaren were half a second ahead of Schumi in Aussie but said they optimised a bit to much for qualifying and suffered in the race, reversed that for Malay and Schumi was under 2 tenths behind in Malay and their race pace still wasn't great, now Schumi is right on top of Hamilton. So Mclaren have dropped around half a second in quali looking for race pace, and it stands to reason that Rossberg can gain half a second going the other way.
 
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^^an interesting idea, but DRS isn't the only way to pass a car.

Nice to finally be able to watch it live :)

Half a second to schumi. That has to hurt.

Good to see RB falling back into their place.

I wonder if Mercedes will sort out their tire issues before the top runners match their w-duct advantage.

Vettel will crash out tomorrow I reckon.
 
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The only passing place where Merc are going to 'blow everyone away' is the DRS zone, and the Sauber is faster than the Merc through that speed trap anyway.
 
Guys stopping banging on about the Mercedes double DRS.

Rosberg got all his time from the middle sector which doesn't have big straights, the car was planted through the high speed stuff.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
Half a second to schumi. That has to hurt.
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I'm not so sure. Rosberg was the only driver who took out new tyres at the start of the session when the track was fastest, Schumi was on used at that stage, and only switched to new once the track had cooled, slowing everyone down. It wasn't a straight fight, so Schumi will be less bothered I think.
 
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