Japanese Grand Prix: A real wet weekend!

At the time of writing this post, I'm sat here waiting for news on Jules Bianchi's condition, after he was involved in a incident at the site of Sutil's crash. In circumstances such as these, issues of safety and risk are always raised, and understandably, however I think that in this case everything was done to make the race as safe as possible. The rain became torrential, through the closing few laps of the race, and, after a spin from Sutil, the safety car was deployed. In my view, all appropriate action was taken and all we can do now is pray for Jules' speedy recovery.

Overall, it was a very exciting race, with the rain throwing up all sorts of drama and unpredictability. Despite the fact that the drivers started behind the safety car, the racing was on fire, and especially from the two Red Bull boys. This week Driver of The Day is actually Team of The Day and it goes to Red Bull Racing, for turning their weekend around. During qualifying, both Vettel and Ricciardo were struggling to get any kind of competitive pace out of their cars, whereas, through the midway period of the race, they were on fire. Vettel reeled in the Williams of Felipe Massa and dispatched him with relative ease. He then moved on to Bottas and dispatched the second Mercedes-powered Williams with just as much haste. Ricciardo acted similarly, with a couple of amazing manoeuvres, through the Dunlop curves. It was a great performance from the two Red Bull drivers and made it
impossible to choose between them, for Driver of The Day.

Jenson Button, in the McLaren, should also be commended for a great effort. His McLaren has been under performing all season, but he and his engineers managed to get him in to second place for a short period of the race. Ultimately, he just couldn't compete with the might of Red Bull Racing, but did manage to finish ahead of both Williams drivers. Ferrari, on the other hand, were back to their form of this season, Raikonnen struggling down the order and Alonso retiring during the two laps behind the safety car, at the very start.

We were spared the post-race theatrics, between Nico and Lewis. Everybody was much too concerned with Bianchi's condition. However, the result puts Hamilton in the driving seat, so to speak, with a ten point lead over his teammate. Once again, Lewis appeared to show his superiority over Nico, as he caught, passed and then left Rosberg behind. Rosberg complained of massive oversteer, but it's worth pointing out that, first of all it's normally Hamilton who moans, secondly they were both driving the exact same car, so there was no reason for them to be handling any differently, irrespective of the track conditions, and thirdly drivers often come up with excuses when they are under pressure. With only four races remaining, will Rosberg crumble or will he turn things around?

The Result:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	44	1:51:43.021	2	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	44	+9.1 secs	1	18
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	44	+29.1 secs	9	15
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	44	+38.8 secs	6	12
5	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	44	+67.5 secs	8	10
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	44	+113.7 secs	3	8
7	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	44	+115.1 secs	4	6
8	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	44	+115.9 secs	13	4
9	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	44	+127.6 secs	20	2
10	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	43	+1 Lap	11	1
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	43	+1 Lap	12
12	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	43	+1 Lap	10
13	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	43	+1 Lap	15
14	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	43	+1 Lap	7
15	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	43	+1 Lap	16
16	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	43	+1 Lap	22
17	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	43	+1 Lap	17
18	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	43	+1 Lap	21
19	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	43	+1 Lap	19
20	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	41	Accident	18
21	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	40	Accident	14
Ret	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	2	Electronics	5

British Qualifying: Bad decisions all round.

The biggest mistake in qualifying, punctuated by the typically petulant post-session interview, came from Lewis Hamilton. He certainly had every reason to be sulky, having just thrown away, not only pole but the second, third, fourth and fifth places on the grid. Most drivers would display a facade of professional diplomacy, but not Hamilton. Hamilton, once again, discarded all notions of professionalism and turned in to a diva. He's obviously been spending too much time with his popstar girlfriend. However, he wasn't the only person to make a mistake and the other massive mistakes came at the very start of the session.

Qualifying was difficult for everyone, since the track was continuously changing, from wet to dry and from quick to slow. Each of the three sessions appeared to be a carbon copy of the last, at least regarding track conditions. As the cars went out on to the circuit, at the start of each session, the track was relatively dry, providing quick lap times. Towards the middle of each session, the rain started to fall and drivers dove in to the pits, to sit and wait. The pressure was on in the final minutes of all three sessions, as the track dried out and adrenaline-fuelled drivers piled out of the pits to secure their places.

With such complex conditions, it was inevitable that somebody was going to get caught out. It was just a bit of a surprise to find that four of the six drivers that went out in Q1 were both of the Ferrari drivers and both of the Williams drivers. So much for my praise for Williams. They literally couldn't have made a bigger mistake, with timing being so crucial. Achieving anything from the back of the grid will be virtually impossible and, as for Ferrari? To be honest, these days they struggle to achieve much from within the top ten qualifying positions.

It was a bit like role reversal to see Button's McLaren, right up at the front, whilst Alonso, Raikonnen, Bottas and Massa, languish at the back. And where do we start with Marussia? The minnows are celebrating again, as both Bianchi and Chilton qualified well above their usual positions. Purists will argue that the only reason they qualified up in twelfth and thirteenth was because of the conditions, however, the decision making part of Formula One is a skill in itself, and for that reason Marussia deserved their relative success today.

Rosberg continues to prove he's the number one Mercedes driver, since Lewis Hamilton seems unable to scupper his team mate's final fast lap, as efficiently as Nico can. Slowing down and backing up Rosberg and Perez, through the final corners of the penultimate lap of Q3, he only succeeded in ruining Sergio Perez's chance of bettering his time. He was heard complaining that the surface was "very slippery", before slowing down like he was driving on ice. Did karma ruin Hamilton's final lap? Maybe, but then, I guess you could argue, where was karma when Rosberg was employing his dirty tricks, in China and Monaco?

The Grid:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:40.380	1:35.179	1:35.766	21
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:45.086	1:36.410	1:37.386	19
3	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:44.425	1:36.579	1:38.200	24
4	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:41.271	1:37.112	1:38.329	19
5	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:42.507	1:37.370	1:38.417	23
6	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:41.058	1:34.870	1:39.232	19
7	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:42.146	1:37.350	1:40.457	20
8	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:44.710	1:38.166	1:40.606	18
9	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:41.032	1:36.813	1:40.707	21
10	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:43.040	1:37.800	1:40.855	21
11	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:43.121	1:38.496		17
12	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:41.169	1:38.709		17
13	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:42.082	1:39.800		14
14	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:43.285	1:40.912		16
DSQ	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:43.892	1:44.018		15
16	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:42.603	No time		8
17	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:45.318			5
18	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:45.695			5
19	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:45.935			6
20	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:46.684			7
21	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:49.421			7
22	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:49.625			8

Chinese Qualifying: Rain on our parade...

After the excitement of the Bahrain Grand Prix hopes for the rest of the season are running high, so the Chinese Grand Prix has a lot to live up to. However, despite the session starting with a wet track and the rain continuing to fall even as the cars began posting their quick laps, the order was relatively predictable. Once again, Mercedes and Red Bull were at the top of the time sheets.

There were plenty of cars leaving the circuit and driving across grass and tarmac, but none of the incidents were anywhere near heart-in-mouth moments. In fact, the most exciting moment in Q1 came when Gutierrez failed to make it in to Q2, which officially becomes the most depressing sentence I've had to write in one of my post-qualifying blogs. The most depressing sentence to be 'spoken' was probably from the BBC's Tom Clarkson who said "[...] we're getting a bit more drizzle coming down now, and it's, as I say, only drizzle, I don't know if its going to affect the conditions out on the track that much [...]". I can tell you Tom, that no it didn't.

It was the usual suspects that were caught underachieving in Q2, with both McLarens failing to make it in to the final top ten shoot out, along with the Ferrari of Kimi Raikonnen. Williams picked up where they left off in Bahrain, bagging a satisfying sixth and seventh. The only real moment of excitement came in the closing seconds of the Q3 shoot out, when Rosberg had a speculative spin through the final corner. It was an easy mistake to make, since a number of drivers had previously experienced hairy moments through there. However, its interesting to note that his teammate was already on pole and his spin resulted in yellow flags, which slowed their competitors down on their final fast laps. I don't think I need to say anymore.

I suppose that on a positive note, the qualifying wasn't abandoned or postponed because of the 'drizzle', but that said it really was a hellishly boring event. Maybe we should all recall that qualifying in Bahrain was relatively tedious as well, and yet it set us up for a fabulous spectacle. Fingers crossed.

The Grid:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:55.516	1:54.029	1:53.860	21
2	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:56.641	1:55.302	1:54.455	23
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:55.926	1:54.499	1:54.960	23
4	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:56.058	1:55.294	1:55.143	22
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:56.961	1:55.765	1:55.637	21
6	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:56.850	1:56.757	1:56.147	24
7	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:56.501	1:56.253	1:56.282	24
8	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:55.913	1:56.847	1:56.366	23
9	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:57.477	1:56.584	1:56.773	23
10	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:58.411	1:56.407	1:57.079	22
11	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:58.279	1:56.860		17
12	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:57.783	1:56.963		17
13	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:57.261	1:57.289		18
14	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:58.138	1:57.393		17
15	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:57.369	1:57.675		17
16	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:58.362	1:58.264		17
17	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:58.988			10
18	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:59.260			10
19	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:59.326			10
20	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	2:00.646			10
21	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	2:00.865			10
DNQ	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	No time			0