Spot on. There was no secondary move. Vettel gave him a good squeeze on the back straight so he was always going to defend hard.
Looked to me Lewis and Seb were in the middle of the circuit, he moves right to break tow, Seb follows and then Lewis dives back on the racing line to tackle the corner.
Disappointing race. I was sure that train of drivers (Senna, Maldonado, Grosjean, Kimi, even Webber) would need to pit again. Horrific performance by Ferrari, but at least the winner is a different one.
*shrugs* Vettel lost the faster line, possibly losing 4th to webber. Vettel wasn't going to hold Lewis back so I don't see why he had to do it to make sure he stayed in front is how I see it. Lewis was going to get 3rd but that cost Vettel 4th I think.
God, Sky is dismal. The ice-creams arrived and they all start talking about them over the top of Whitmarsh, who's good enough to give them an interview.
Alonso would have been higher but for his mistake in hanging on around the outside. Massa looked goood for a while but lost out big time after his stop. Alonso could have had a podium as he was ahead of Hamilton before he went off.
Hamilton was ahead and pulling away. I don't think his mistake cost him much, I doubt he would have passed Maldonado anyway.
Alonso 37-0 Massa Having already gotten th first ferrari driver to drive the whole season without a podium he appears to be attempting it for points.
Good recovery by Seb, shame that he was held up for so long behind Kimi and the Saubers as they never gave him the chance to make a overtake on the long straight since the RB8 is horrible in top speed, it's always been their weakness and after 3 years of being at the front they still haven't bothered to sort it out... Yeah it's great if you can go through the field with an advantage on the straights. But it's almost impossible to overtake on a circuit like that in a Red Bull. Webber was still struggling even with the faster exhaust system.
I sincerely hope everyone enjoyed that race as much as I did! What a fantastic race. Congratulations are in order for many, many people: Nico Rosberg Mercedes Grand Prix Sir Frank Williams (70 tomorrow and a resurgent performance from his team) Lau (someone's just shown me the interview!) BBC producton team (according to Lau; who obviously knows more than I do) And the Chinese people for embracing F1 and providing us with an absolutely classic race: probably one of the most exciting races I can remember of all time (and I'm old enough to remember more than I care to remember - which, as a sentence, may prove the point!). Simply superb⦠©
I totally agree, it was good wake up for this race. Action on nearly every lap and gratz Rosberg for a well deserved win.
Thought it was an absolutely dire race until the last round of pit stops when everything went completely crazy. Well done to Nico though, stunning pole yesterday, then a great start and dominant performance. Two stops as well, biggest surprise of the race for me. They have to be considered real title contenders now they have the race pace to match their quali performances. They should be frontrunners at the permanent race tracks until the others get their own FDRS. I don't think they'll have as much of an advantage in Bahrain and Spain though, with the faster corners and shorter straights though. And Monaco could be anyone's. Annoyed Lotus didn't pit Raikkonen when his tyres went off, I had money on him to get fastest lap, got excited when his tyres fell to bits. Really interesting battle shaping up at McLaren. Hamilton leads the championship with three podiums and well done to him. But Button has beaten him in two grands prix now, and was leading him in Malaysia before making an uncharacteristic error. I wonder what's going through Hamilton's mind right now, results have gone well for him but Button's performances must be a concern. Pleased with Vettel's recovery after a nightmare first lap. He's closer to the top of the Championship than he was coming into this race so overall it's a decent weekend. Massa had a good race, only five seconds of Alonso at the end. Should take a bit of heat off him, especially as Perez had a pretty underwhelming weekend. I watched the race on BBC. Found Ben Edwards really entertaining, reminds of Legard in some ways but I don't think people will give him the same abuse out of affection for the BBC. He made me laugh when Grosjean ran wide towards the end of the race and there was on almighty scrap between him Maldonado and a few others, he seemed to talk for a full lap without drawing breath. Really exciting stuff towards the end with the battle for second and then the battle for 6th just behind. The dominance of the Mercedes powered cars reminded me of what Newey said before last season: "The more stable the chassis regulations are, the more the performance will converge and the more the differences in engines become apparent." I hope this isn't what we're seeing and that McLaren and Mercedes have just done the best job, would be a shame if the championship was being dictated by a customer part which is frozen into the regulations. At least the aero regs are keeping the cars bunched tightly though, this has been the best start to a season I can remember. Definitely the best since 2003.
If the chassis were all close and it was solely the engine, then surely FI would be up there as well, not down in 13th-16th.
Suprising considering the McLaren input that they have been getting. Obviously Whitmarsh is giving them bad info
I don't think he will be concerned because he has the results and has been faster in every qualifying. I'm pleased to see Hamilton be more consistant and hasn't done anything stupid yet.
It was a fantastic race and it had to go some to beat last years race and it came close! Yet another great race from China. Definitely one of the few properly good race tracks produced in the last decade. Rosberg was utterly superb. World class drive. Long time coming but he deserves it. Thought Button and Hamilton drove two very good races as did the Red Bull guys as well. Absolutely no complaints for the final top 4. Secondly may I point out what a superb job the BBC did in covering the race. Edwards and Coulthard is an exceptional commentating team and the presentation was once again top quality. The forum especially was fantastic. Always where the action is in getting in there with Mercedes and some wonderful fan interaction. Absolutely top quality yet again which only makes you sad that we can't have all the races on the BBC.
