GP of China

[chris]

Pos Driver Team T1 T2 Time
1. (17) Barrichello Ferrari (B) 24.733 52.510 1:34.012
2. (19) Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 24.909 52.858 1:34.178 + 0.166
3. (11) Button BAR-Honda (M) 24.907 52.983 1:34.295 + 0.283
4. (16) Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 24.697 53.029 1:34.759 + 0.747
5. (15) R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 25.058 53.306 1:34.891 + 0.879
6. (7) Alonso Renault (M) 25.085 53.182 1:34.917 + 0.905
7. (18) Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 24.985 53.230 1:34.951 + 0.939
8. (12) Panis Toyota (M) 25.108 53.276 1:34.975 + 0.963
9. (13) Sato BAR-Honda (M) 24.904 53.135 1:34.993 + 0.981
10. (9) Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 24.932 53.378 1:35.029 + 1.017
11. (14) Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 25.036 53.443 1:35.245 + 1.233
12. (10) Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 24.898 53.371 1:35.286 + 1.274
13. (8) Villeneuve Renault (M) 25.220 53.645 1:35.384 + 1.372
14. (5) Zonta Toyota (M) 25.154 53.311 1:35.410 + 1.398
15. (6) Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 25.278 54.122 1:36.507 + 2.495
16. (4) Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 25.336 54.134 1:36.535 + 2.523
17. (2) Glock Jordan-Ford (B) 25.184 54.167 1:37.140 + 3.128
18. (1) Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 26.166 56.217 1:40.240 + 6.228
19. (3) Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) No Time
20. (20) M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) No Time


That's the qualifying result. Schumi had a spin at turn 1. But the big thing to note is the Saubers - look where they are on the grid! Great work from the Swiss team. :)

Ralf Schumacher has also put in a good performance so far as well in his return with the Williams team. He out-performed Montoya by a large margin.

Jacques Villeneuve in the Renault is discovering F1 is more difficult these days than it was previously. In qualifying you don't need to be too far off the leading pace to end up stuck down in 10th or worse. Hopefully this time around in F1 he will let his driving do the talking.. ;)

[FeZ]

I did not watch the qualifying (too early in the morning over here :) ), but I must set my alarm for tomorrow to see MS fight his way thru the field.

Lets see what Jacques can do, its good to see him back.

I think the Saubers are very light and just put in a show for its sponsor Petronas.

[chris]

Perhaps, but it would be a big change of direction for the Swiss team. Their normal strategy is to run as much fuel in the cars as possible, and go for as long as possible into the GP.

Normally the Saubers are the last cars to do the 1st pit-stop.

The Webber/Villeneuve/Montoya on track battle if it happens will be an interesting one. All 3 drivers are not very easily intimidated into mistakes.

[VQ]

I would have thought running the least fuel going in early and doing like what Schui did a coupel races back with the three fuel stops to get the extra speed.

[chris]

It works well if you've got a very speedy car, with a clear advantage over others.

You've got to use the light fuel load and absolutely drive like a mad-man, treating every lap like a qualifying hot-lap in order to build enough of a lead so you can get in, do your 1st stop and not come out stuck behind a huge line of cars. A few drivers have tried such a strategy only to end up getting stuck behind a few too many cars, and the strategy was shot to hell.

But we saw the peril in running a very heavily fueled up car at Monza recently with DC running what was effectively a 1 stop strategy. He ran forever into the race, and started to go quite quickly, but the whole effort was ruined by the fact that his car was so heavy with fuel after its one and only pit-stop.

[Wazza]

That's quite good. To see Schumi at the back of the grid. Will make a great spectacle if he can make his way past 95% of the field.. And in how many laps? ;)

I Hope Raikkonen can give some more hope to McLaren, and beat Barri through the first corner.

This one is on at a more reasonable time to watch - 10:30pm - Race start 11pm. Normally 12/1am start. :blush:

[monaro]

its on at 3.00pm in Aus, i think the first time an overseas race had been broadcast at a reasonable time

[FeZ]

Let me tell you about my China GP (NO SPOILERS)

Yesterday I told you that I will set my alarm clock, but that was not permitted by Mrs. Fez, as she told me she would do horrible things to me if I would wake her up early on a Sunday morning. So I decided not to do a stupid thing like that ;)

I woke up early today (without alarm clock !!!) so I decided to sneak out of bed and go watch F1.

So I lay down on the couch and was watching the pre-race bullshit program with all the useless chit-chat and yada-yada. I decided to close my eyes for a second, to rest my eyes :eek:

When I woke up I did see some "Loony Toons", as my daughter has switched channels, the breakfast was ready, and when I switched back to F1 I could just see the end of the after race press conference.

Well was a great race, what you think ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

[Y2kGoofball]

its on at 3.00pm in Aus, i think the first time an overseas race had been broadcast at a reasonable time heh yea, normally there 1 am arent they?

Fez hold up there, which looney tune was winning? ^_^

For some reason I do that during Indy when its at Surfers Paradise and broadcast all over the weekend

I tend to wake up when I hear the word V8 mentioned, but I doze off for the rest. I can only ever remember sometimes the start and the news thats on after the race ^_^

[VQ]

damn, I missed out on a f1 race..

[monaro]

good race, damned good race.

see what happens when shuey is out of the picture? clean tight racing (apart from when schuey took out klien for no reason, there was no way he could get that pass in that hairpin) and in the end a very close result.
usually in F1 we can go to sleep once theres about 10-15 laps left but kimi just kept on coming at button, really pulling out all stops.

[chris]

Good race, and even better, Raikkonen lost his 2nd place to Button in the BAR. :D

Actually not a bad track in Shanghai, even despite being a Tilke-drome.

And to follow up on our thoughts of the Saubers possibly running very light in qualifying, that wasn't the case, the rest of the front runners had the same fuel load just about, so the Saubers were just working well.

See those Swiss cars on the straights - wow. They had some impressive straight line speed.

The battle between Villeneuve and Webber didn't turn out to be much. Villeneuve in the superior Renault just couldn't keep up with Webber's Jaguar.

Channel 10 on the other hand deserves brick-bats for missing half of the post-race press-conference! It should have known better and not switch to the advertising break. Once again proof of Channel 10 hopelessness. They broadcast half of the GP's late, and then on the one GP they do broadcast live they stuff-up by missing half of the press-conference.

[DC_Spd]

I don't think Jacques did too bad considering it's his first race back, but he needs to work harder. The Track is interesting, the paddock is amazing, Good job Ruebens, Button(although I don't particularily like him) gets better every race, and gee it was good to see Schumi struggle just once...lolol. A good race to watch imo and hopefully a prelude to a great season in '05.

[DC_Tox]

Actually not a bad track in Shanghai, even despite being a Tilke-drome.
Yes, the layout is too much like a stadium, but the driving is great, finally a race track that fits the modern F1 cars and allows some real show -^

[Frank N. O.]

I definately must say that race was more exciting in just about all ways that any other GP this year, or the year before etc.

Not less than four overtaking points on the track, wild and cool! I think the design of the buildings and such are nice and as long as the safety is in order then things are cool.

I noticed by chance that there is already a F1C version of the track being finished, and that sounds cool :)

Has anyone heard any comment on the Ralf-David crash yet?

Greetings
Frank

[chris]

DC I think was to blame for the crash between himself and RS. Very uncharacteristic accident for DC, he usually keeps out of trouble.

I think nothing will happen about that accident, it will just be considered a racing incident, like the MS /CK one. The MS / CK one was 50/50. MS saw the opening and attacked, and CK left a big enough gap to invite such a move, and then realising his error ,tried to close the gap at which point it was too late, and the resulting incident happened.

[DC_Tox]

The MS / CK one was 50/50.
I agree, maybe also 70/30, since the leading car has the right to select the best line...MS has to remember that sometimes he's not leading and the front car has no blue flag &(

You should have heard the commentary in Italy...of course they claimed it was Ck's fault :nono:

[chris]

Who was the commentator, Ivan Capelli? I know he did some commentary stuff for a while, but even though he sort of works for Ferrari-Maserati (driving instructor), I'm surprised he'd be nice to Ferrari after the terrible Ferrari F1 car he drove for them.

He said in the start of the season they could use 13,200rpm, but later on, could only use 12,000rpm. Luca di Montezemolo apparently swept in a changed everything. And of course he explains it in a way that tells you "it wasn't my fault" (speaking from the drivers perspective).

From his description, that Ferrari was a terrible thing, with not one thing on it working correctly. :( That was Ferrari of the old days though. A big name team in a terrible state.

[monaro]

no way was it 50/50. MS attacked from atleast 30 metres out! there was no opening so Klien took his line and then a charging red car comes screaming up beside him! he made no attempt to close the door either, it was just the ferrari with no steering because of the brake lockup, he used klien as a rebound.

[DC_Tox]

Who was the commentator, Ivan Capelli?
Ivan Capelli is in the group of commentators (2, sometimes 3), but I think the one who said "Klien closed the way to Schumi" is the other one ^_^