Chinese GP 2010 - Shanghai

[Ray]

Lewis' car looked really low at the end of the straight during Q3. How could a car be that low at the fastest part of the track with a stalled wing and no fuel? They can't possibly have it be that low with no fuel and the forecast of rain will make it even worse. Or maybe it was the camera angle. To me it looked very low. His wasn't the only one that was low obviously, it just stuck out in my mind how low that car was. I hope it's just my imagination and doesn't affect his car or his race.





Fernando has to be sweating bullets about his engine situation. He's blown two and they haven't even gotten to Monza or Spa yet. I've got possibly a dumb question on the engine rule too. At the start of the season do the teams line up the 8 engines for the season and declare 'these are the 8 we are going to use' or are they just checked and sealed by the FIA as they use them? Could they possibly petition the FIA to make changes due to reliability or not? I know one failure was caused by the fault with his transmission in Malaysia, but the Bahrain engine failed after six laps here and he changed one before the race in Malaysia as well. Just wondering what options Ferrari has with his car and allocation of engines for him. Wonder why Massa hasn't had any failures?

If Vettel doesn't win this championship due to reliability reason it'll be a damn shame. That dude is just killing the field this year. I hope he gets a good result and Red Bull seems to have put the ride height controversy to bed with this qualifying effort today. Even Christian Horner made a funny and snide remark to Vettel after he got pole. I say more power to them and this only makes the racing better because everyone has to bust hump to catch up.

Good qualy today over all. I was glad to see Lewis make it to Q3 finally and look forward to him dicing it up at the front as opposed to busting his ass to just get to the front. Fernando has a great opportunity to get valuable points after his fantastic drive in Malaysia and claw his way back to the front. So far he's not lost a championship he's led early so that fight is something to look forward to. Though I'm not a huge fan of rain races, good for spectacle but makes for artificial results, a slight smattering of rain could dice up the racing and the cream will rise to the top.

Here's hope for a good race tomorrow and a safe race for Torro Rosso!

[andartop]

As the car was moving around with the back end sliding in some corners, I think we can safely say he was on the limit...

That doesn't stop you disliking him though so don't worry...

Whether I like him or not is irrelevant with this thread. I quoted what he said when asked about his performance today.
Lewis is always on the limit, driving his heart and $ss out. Unfortunately for him, today his and his car's limits were lower than his team mate's when it mattered. Same with Massa, Schumi etc.

[ESPImperium]

The more fourcasts i look at, its gonna look like wet wether were gonna wake up to, if you are in Europe at 7am here in ash covered Britian for F1 coverage start.

Thats for the race, its gonna be dry here as after the race its time to wash the Icelandic ash covered car.

[autogyro]

The more fourcasts i look at, its gonna look like wet wether were gonna wake up to, if you are in Europe at 7am here in ash covered Britian for F1 coverage start.

Thats for the race, its gonna be dry here as after the race its time to wash the Icelandic ash covered car.

Yea, bl--dy Iceland, first they nick our fish, then they nick our money and then they sh-- on us!
Sorry couldnt resist. Washing cars with lots of soap is essential, all those chemicals will rot the door rubbers for sure. Dont us car washes though, not unless you want scratches.

[Mr Alcatraz]

I havn't read The Boss'" comments! about his!

Here it is: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82954

Apparently he was "baffled".
And, of course, he was on the limit, as always.

It would appear that he is sincerely puzzled.
Not a big fan of his, but can appreciate his candor, and "owning" the lap.
I think it comes back to tire performance though.
He was up in the first two sectors and his time fell way off in the third without any apparent mistake!

[Terrible3]

If Vettel doesn't win this championship due to reliability reason it'll be a damn shame. That dude is just killing the field this year.

One can only imagine how far ahead he would be in terms of points in the WDC had his RB6 not suffered its issues in the opening races. Its a real shame that every time his car felt like giving out he was not only on pole but was controlling the race.

With everyone talking about Shui and Nico it seems not much as been said about Vettel and Webber. I feel that coming into this season Webber was pretty certain he would be able to match or better Vettels performance. After being out qualified twice it seemed as if he was pretty optimistic last race that he was going to turn the table on Vettel. After failing capitalize on his pole and in turn loosing out once again to Vettel it seemed as if he confidence has greatly diminished. After quali yesterday he looked pretty lost for words when Vettel had him by three tenths. I personally find this inerteam rivalry more interesting as webber is more emotional than MS.

As far as LH and JB go, sorry I personally think LH is unquestionably faster.

[Ray]

Lewis' car looked really low at the end of the straight during Q3. How could a car be that low at the fastest part of the track with a stalled wing and no fuel? They can't possibly have it be that low with no fuel and the forecast of rain will make it even worse. Or maybe it was the camera angle. To me it looked very low. His wasn't the only one that was low obviously, it just stuck out in my mind how low that car was. I hope it's just my imagination and doesn't affect his car or his race.

"We were doing so well in practice and in Q1 and Q2," Hamilton told television crews. "It was quite easy to be up the front. The car started bottoming a lot more in Q3 but I don't know whether that's had anything to do with the balance of the car, but I just had no more time in the car. The car was sliding a lot more.

Looks like I was right about his car being very low at the end of the straight. He was also sliding around ALOT in turns 1 and 2 and going into 3. I wonder what's caused it and why it would have been bottoming so much between the first two sessions and the third one?

[ringo]

They are probably using some similar suspension mechanics as redbull and have not fully mastered it. Webber also looked very low as well in q2.

[CHT]

Hamilton looked like he may have over drived the car, but at the same time, it was plain to see the car was sliding around a bit. He also said it bottomed out somewhere. Just a bad quali for him, and he should have had a second lap but i don't know what happened there.
All he did was rubber the track more the other guys.
Car should be on the front row if he is normally 3.5 tenths up on Button.

What side is the p1 grid slot on outside of the turn or inside?
The start will be very interesting with that tightening turn.

could the bottoming out cause by something new Mclaren introduces to work around the ride height adjustment rules?

[Jersey Tom]

Hamilton looked like he may have over drived the car, but at the same time, it was plain to see the car was sliding around a bit. He also said it bottomed out somewhere. Just a bad quali for him, and he should have had a second lap but i don't know what happened there.
All he did was rubber the track more the other guys.
Car should be on the front row if he is normally 3.5 tenths up on Button.

What side is the p1 grid slot on outside of the turn or inside?
The start will be very interesting with that tightening turn.

could the bottoming out cause by something new Mclaren introduces to work around the ride height adjustment rules?

Could be. Could also just be that they cut their setup too close. Could be that ambient conditions gave them more downforce than they expected. Could be that their tire data was off. Could be that the tire springrate gave up too much over the run. Could be gremlins...

[CHT]

Could be. Could also just be that they cut their setup too close. Could be that ambient conditions gave them more downforce than they expected. Could be that their tire data was off. Could be that the tire springrate gave up too much over the run. Could be gremlins...

it could be due to obstructed defecation

[ESPImperium]

The more fourcasts i look at, its gonna look like wet wether were gonna wake up to, if you are in Europe at 7am here in ash covered Britian for F1 coverage start.

Thats for the race, its gonna be dry here as after the race its time to wash the Icelandic ash covered car.

Yea, bl--dy Iceland, first they nick our fish, then they nick our money and then they sh-- on us!
Sorry couldnt resist. Washing cars with lots of soap is essential, all those chemicals will rot the door rubbers for sure. Dont us car washes though, not unless you want scratches.

Good old hand wash, but its been raining overnight.

Looks likw we have the real name for the F-Duct now. Its called the FW80 or MW80. Doesnt sound sexy, lets keep it as the F-Duct.

[mx_tifoso]

I finally watched qualy, now ready for the race...

Yea, bl--dy Iceland, first they nick our fish, then they nick our money and then they sh-- on us!

[freedom_honda]

Does anyone have a link to a live BBC feed?

[kalinka]

"2.30pm "I have a little question: who do you think, is the best wet-driver on the grid?" asks Bert. Hamilton, Webber or Button all have claims. Schumacher did but he hasn't raced enough in the wet lately. On that subject, very light rain falling."

from ESPN

EDIT :

2.37pm "It's not raining enough to put on intermediates but enough to trouble the drivers," says David Coulthard. Umbrellas up in the stands.