2015 Chinese Grand Prix Thread

[Mia 01]

Kimis start made the race for me, from sixth to fourth in only a couple of corners.

[rjbetty]

Wow so Lewis is a dickhead now?

And if it was the other way round, we know the feeling would be the same. Nice and consistent.

I feel it was the wise and prudent thing for Lewis to race as he did, as he could not have known if the tyres would have gone right off the cliff, especially after Malaysia.

I'm very open to try and understand if anyone disagrees.

[rjbetty]

Too late to edit previous post now, so.

1.Hamilton - Pretty much 10/10 this wknd yet still he's an evildoer to some! I thought he did get the best result for the team rather than end up like Kimi/Lotus/2012.
2.Rosberg - Apparently he tried a nasty dig at Lewis by saying we will discuss it in debrief - I wouldn't want to look like an idiot. Nico, you have looked like a complete idiot off track all season, with more and more people getting concerned by your weirdness. I thought you said you wanted Ferrari to be closer to you #confused . Just a spiteful and horrible person, I'm really sorry to say. (no hate here, just disappointment)
(also Nico did finish 2nd so what's the big deal?)

3.Vettel - Got the result ahead of Kimi in a clean race.
4.Raikkonen - Not his best weekend but good enough job.

5.Massa - Mildly surprising me by outqualifying Bottas 3/3, and being better today.
6.Bottas - Okay but not great. Is his back still bugging him?

7.Grosjean - Hard to tell. That chassis is disappointing imo, now masked by the engine.
8.Nasr - Okay, but I feel 8th owes more to car than driver.

9.Ricciardo - Some people might be dripping with hatred having spent all last season writhing on the floor hoping for bad things to happen to him. Lets stick him in a 3rd Ferrari to see how "average" he really is.
10.Ericsson - Nice to see him in the points again, but he ain't no great sadly.

11.Perez - Beat Hulkenberg, so thumbs up.
12.Alonso - Same as always. Good stuff.

13.Button - Seems to go well at China. Shame he spoiled it with a Magnussen style error!
14.Sainz - What happened here? :/

15 and 16. A 2 car finish for Manor is a big deal for me as a lot of people have said a lot of unkind things about this humble team, which I believe is unfair and unwarranted. Not bad for a dead team. Sorry Bob and Bernie!!

17.Verstappen - Like I said, I always believed in him. Well done me boy.
18.Maldonado - There is a good driver in here somewhere I think. Maybe one day he'll sort of get it together. 3 race collisions in a row and not his fault? Wowza.

19.Kvyat - Inconclusive again. So far, his best result in F1 remains a 9th, but for the doubters, remember Ricciardo's best result around this time last year remained 7th.
20.Hulkenberg - Bit disappointing, Sadly I saw this coming in 2013 so was braced for it.





N.B. Lewis has been criticised all his career as not looking after his tyres. Now he looks after his tyres and there is outrage. At least I know that if it had been Rosberg, the condemnation would have been the same. Right? Right?

[The Black Knight]

2.Rosberg - Apparently he tried a nasty dig at Lewis by saying we will discuss it in debrief - I wouldn't want to look like an idiot. Nico, you have looked like a complete idiot off track all season, with more and more people getting concerned by your weirdness. I thought you said you wanted Ferrari to be closer to you #confused . Just a spiteful and horrible person, I'm really sorry to say. (no hate here, just disappointment)
(also Nico did finish 2nd so what's the big deal?)

Well he has tried it all hasn't he? He simply has no answer to Hamilton's blistering pace. He has tried cheating, he's tried mind games but ultimately Hamilton knows that he has the pace on Rosberg on the vast majority of weekends. It's unfortunate because Nico is an amazing driver and, driving perfectly, he has Hamilton's pace in qualifying and in the race, he showed this last year. It has never been more obvious to me than after this race that Hamilton has broken him. Losing the championship couple with 3 races of being hammered has gotten to him. He might come back but, barring reliability or unforeseen events, I can't seem him beating Hammy over the course of a season, particularly with the mindset he has now. Hamilton is under his skin.

[journeyman racer]

A small thread for this race. Half of the posts are about something Rosberg said afterwards (Which I haven't yet heard or read), that's got sand in the Hamilton fangirls panties.

[AndyL]

I've just listened to the drivers' comments after the race (I went back to bed at 8:45 ) - very interesting what Nico and Lewis had to say.
Based on the radio messages that were played during the race, I thought at the time that Lewis was just following the target times he was given: they told him to speed up to a 43.7 and his subsequent laps were all 1:43.6 - 1:43.7. Later they told him to speed up to 43.3 and he started doing times under 1:43.3. I was slightly surprised he didn't say in his defence that he was just doing what the team told him. But of course Lewis is quite happy for Nico to think that he is the engineer of all Nico's misfortune.

[truefan72]

A small thread for this race. Half of the posts are about something Rosberg said afterwards (Which I haven't yet heard or read), that's got sand in the Hamilton fangirls panties.

well perhaps you should listen to it , read the statement, then come back with an informed opinion before making a post that sounds like something rosberg would say these days. lol

[rjbetty]

A small thread for this race. Half of the posts are about something Rosberg said afterwards (Which I haven't yet heard or read), that's got sand in the Hamilton fangirls panties.

Hmmm I'm not gonna apologise for not liking Rosberg's antics. It's out of order and needs to be called out! But it is really entertaining too. (I can get a bit sensitive cos I've encountered people like this in my life recently, so a bit close to home)

I just like things to be nice and fair, regardless of if a driver is my favourite or not.

Have a good day.

[Tazio]

For starters, I don't get too wrapped up in what drivers say during a race weekend unless it is absurd. The Boss is faster than Nico, and that is that. It was a rather dull race, and I don't think anyone drove an especially outstanding race. Shame it had to end behind the safety car. Congrat's to the Boss, he already has the championship in his pocket. After all these years I can say objectively without fear of recrimination, that he has finally and thoroughly matured as a racer. I find it very hard not to like the guy in his current iteration.

[kfzmeister]

.....and I don't think anyone drove an especially outstanding race.

Really? Can't even think of a super young guy today?

My favorite part of the race came towards the end with BUT and MAL. Actually enjoyed the Macca-Lotus sandwich for a few laps. There appears to be some progress.....

In the front, HAM surely was in control from the flag. Watching ROS crumble is sad. Where is is aggressiveness?
Funny watching SEB with a smile on his face during the post race HAM-ROS squabble. Not too long ago it was often him that was in the middle of such things.

I don't think that Ferrari really had a chance for a win here. They looked more competitive, yet HAM really cruised outfront while SEB had to work hard to make any ground. It really became evident towards the end when Merc pulled a 20 second gap.