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#436165
 wrote:">The Chinese Grand Prix - did you know?

Shanghai has hosted a Grand Prix every year since 2004, but did you know that in all that time no driver has won consecutive races? Ahead of the 2015 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix, we present all the need-to-know facts, stats and trivia...

◾The Shanghai International Circuit hosted the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix in 2004, and has been a permanent fixture on the calendar ever since.

◾The circuit configuration has never changed, meaning the current 5.451-kilometre layout is the same as used in that inaugural race more than a decade ago. The layout itself reflects the shape of the Chinese character ‘shang', which stands for high or above.

◾Only once has a driver claimed pole position and race victory and also set the fastest lap - Lewis Hamilton, when he triumphed for McLaren in 2008. It wasn't a 'Grand Slam', however, as his then-team mate Heikki Kovalainen led for three of the 56 laps (Hamilton led the other 53).

◾It is just one of several records Hamilton holds at the circuit. He has won the race three times, taken four pole positions, set two fastest laps and claimed six podiums in total - all unmatched feats. He has also led more laps, and therefore kilometres, than any other driver in Shanghai.

◾While that might bode well for Hamilton's 2015 hopes, one interesting quirk of Shanghai is that no driver has managed to win back-to-back races at the circuit. In fact Fernando Alonso is the only other driver to win on more than one occasion, his triumphs coming in 2005 and 2013 for Renault and Ferrari respectively. Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg all have one win to their name.

◾It is Button though who holds the honour of leading the most Chinese Grands Prix. The Briton has found himself at the front of the field on six occasions in China. Button's McLaren team mate Alonso has led for five races, as has Hamilton.

◾Alongside their McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari colleagues, one other current driver pairing has led in Shanghai - Force India duo Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg have both hit the front previously in China, in 2012 and 2013 respectively. On both occasions, they failed to finish in the top eight however.

◾Barrichello's victory came in the inaugural race in Shanghai, when he beat Button (then racing for BAR Honda) by just over a second. It remains the closest winning margin of any Grand Prix in Shanghai. It also proved to be the final time Barrichello triumphed in the red of Ferrari.

◾Ferrari also hold another record in China courtesy of Michael Schumacher - the German came through from sixth on the grid to take victory ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso in 2006, which remains the lowest winning grid position at the circuit.

◾That said, pole is no guarantee of success at Shanghai. Since 2004, victory has come from pole on only six occasions - a strike rate of 55 percent. Over the last five races, only Hamilton in 2014 and Rosberg in 2012 have managed a win/pole double.

◾Rosberg's 2012 triumph, incidentally, was his first victory in Formula One racing and also the first for the revived Mercedes works team. Since that breakthrough, the team have gone on to win a further 20 times in F1 competition.

◾It is Ferrari though who boast the best victory record at Shanghai, having prevailed four times (despite not having been on pole since Barrichello in 2004). McLaren have won three times, Mercedes twice, while Red Bull and Renault have one victory apiece.

#436166
More stats:

Alan Baldwin wrote:">Formula One statistics for the Chinese Grand Prix


Statistics for Sunday's Chinese Formula One Grand Prix at the Shanghai international circuit:

- - - -

Lap distance: 5.451km. Total distance: 305.066km (56 laps)

Race lap record: Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari one minute 32.238 seconds (2004)

2014 pole: Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes

2014 winner: Hamilton

Start time: 0600 GMT/1400 local

Tyres: Medium (white), soft (yellow)

- -

WINS

Sebastian Vettel's victory for Ferrari in Malaysia (race two of 19) was the German's first for the Italian team and their first since 2013.

Vettel is the 38th driver to win for Ferrari since the championship started in 1950, and the third German after Michael Schumacher and Wolfgang von Trips.

The four times world champion now has 40 career wins, Hamilton 34, Fernando Alonso 32, Kimi Raikkonen 20 and Jenson Button 15.

One more win would put Vettel third overall and level with the late Brazilian triple world champion Ayrton Senna in the all-time lists.

Malaysia ended Mercedes's run of eight successive race wins. It was the first time since 2013 that a team other than Mercedes or Red Bull had won.

Ferrari have won 222 races, McLaren 182, Williams 114 and Red Bull 50. Mercedes have won 30.

McLaren have not won for 40 races, a run that dates back to Brazil 2012. They went 48 races without a win from 1993-97.

- -

POLE POSITION

Mercedes have now been on pole for the last 13 races. The record for successive poles is 24 (Williams 1992/93).

Mercedes and Williams were the only teams to start on pole last year.

Ferrari's last pole was in Germany with Alonso in 2012.

- -

POINTS

Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen, aged 17 years five months and 27 days, became the youngest driver to score points in Formula One by finishing seventh at Sepang. The previous record was held by Russian Daniil Kvyat, who was 19 when he scored in Australia last year.

Verstappen's team mate Carlos Sainz also finished in the points in Malaysia, becoming only the fifth driver in the last 10 years to score points in his first two races.

- -

CHINA

The race made its debut on the calendar in 2004 and six of the 11 Chinese Grands Prix have been won from pole.

No driver has ever won in China two years in a row. Hamilton is the most successful there with three wins (2008, 2011, 2014) while Alonso has two (2005, 2013).

Ferrari have won four times, McLaren three.

Button and Alonso are the only drivers to have finished every Chinese Grand Prix. Only four times has the winner in China gone on to take the title that year.

Button (in 2010) is the only driver to have won in China while reigning world champion.

The 1.17km back straight is the longest on the current Formula One calendar. Hamilton won last year with a two-stop strategy.

Rosberg took his first F1 pole and win in China in 2012. The circuit also saw Red Bull's first F1 win in 2009.

- - - -

MILESTONE

Malaysia was Hamilton's 150th grand prix start.

#436188
There is much more to the following article; but, I have posted only the pertinent comments regarding the title of the piece.

Nate Saunders and Laurence Edmondson wrote:">F1 needs a Ferrari repeat in China

Formula One was "broken" in Melbourne, but then "revitalised" in Malaysia. Reactions to the first two races of the season have been largely hyperbolic but there's no denying Ferrari's win in Sepang was the shot in the arm the sport needed after almost total Mercedes dominance since the start of 2014. The circus heads to China this weekend with a genuine sense of intrigue and excitement it's been lacking at the front, beyond the inter-team battle at Mercedes last season. The return to cooler temperatures may well mean a return to business as usual but Mercedes' rivals can smell blood - even if it is only a few drops. F1 needs that wound to keep bleeding in Shanghai for the sake of the season.

In form

Ferrari returned to the top step in Malaysia to end nearly two years without a win. One victory does not automatically mean Ferrari is back in the hunt (see talking points below) but it was just reward for the remarkable turnaround orchestrated by team boss Maurizio Arrivabene and his technical chief James Allison since last year. It is also worth noting Sebastian Vettel claimed career victory number 40, putting him one away from equalling none other than the late Ayrton Senna's career tally...

One to watch

If there were points given for bad luck this season, Kimi Raikkonen would be waltzing the 2015 championship, at least in the Ferrari garage. When not recovering from first corner contact in Melbourne or a botched qualifying and early puncture in Malaysia, Raikkonen has at least matched if not bettered Sebastian Vettel's lap times over long stints. Had things gone his way it could well have been the Finn, not Vettel, who won in Malaysia. In Mercedes' press release before this weekend, Nico Rosberg said his focus was on Lewis Hamilton and "my compatriot in the red car" - namely Vettel, with no mention of Raikkonen. Mercedes - and Vettel for that matter - write off the revitalised Finn at their peril.

Talking points

Hoping for deja vu

Sebastian Vettel's win in Malaysia was the perfect tonic for F1 after Mercedes romped to a dominant one-two in Australia. But how much of it was down to the searing heat of Sepang and Mercedes' subsequent inability to manage their tyres as well as Ferrari will become apparent in China. There is no doubting Ferrari has made a huge leap forward but the "wake-up call", as it was called by Toto Wolff, will have revitalised and redoubled the efforts of Mercedes. The Brackley outfit seems only too happy to have some genuine competition and what better challenge than from the sport's most popular team with a success-starved fan base.

But some realistic thinking is needed. Despite Kimi Raikkonen's belief Ferrari can be quick in any conditions, it is important to remember the Scuderia finished some 35 seconds down on Mercedes in the chillier conditions in Melbourne. Add to that technical director James Allison's statement directly after the grand prix, that "we will have our work cut out in China to do anything like as impressive a job as we have done here". The cooling package on the team's innovative SF15-T is one of its strong points, allowing it to operate in high temperatures without placing too much stress on the power unit. That strength is negated slightly in the cooler confines of Shanghai.

For the sake of F1, another close race is exactly what 2015 needs but we may have to wait until we return to warmer climates to see a red car back at the front...

Betting

Lewis Hamilton remains the bookies favourite to win at 4/6. Ferrari pair Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen have odds of 9/2 and 11/1 respectively. There are odds of 8/1 for McLaren to get both cars into the points...

#436189
More information regarding this circuit:

Nate Saunders and Laurence Edmondson wrote:">F1 needs a Ferrari repeat in China

...Facts and figures

• Last year's race was cut short by two laps when the chequered flag was mistakenly waved early, though it had no bearing on the top ten or Lewis Hamilton's victory.

• Though Hamilton (three) and Fernando Alonso (two) have multiple victories in Shanghai, no driver has claimed back-to-back wins.

• The Shanghai circuit is shaped like the Chinese character 'Shang' - meaning 'high' or 'above'.

• Pirelli will bring the soft and medium compounds to this race.

Weather

It looks set to be cloudier and cooler in China than it was in Malaysia. That could be crucial in determining the outcome of the race, with highs of 22C predicted on Sunday. While rain played a key part in Malaysia qualifying the chances of it having a bearing on this weekend's action currently sits at 20%.

ESPN prediction

There's a split at ESPN on this one. Deputy editor Laurence Edmondson thinks Nico Rosberg will turn around his form with a much-needed victory, while assistant editor Nate Saunders says world champion Lewis Hamilton will return to winning ways.

#436216
Looks like Mercedes have a few tenths advantage over Ferrari over 1 lap but the race could be interesting as Ferrari's race pace is closer and Ferrari were getting much better tyre life in FP2. Could be a case of Mercedes on 3 stops vs Ferrari on 2 stops again which would make for an excellent race.

IF Mercedes can 2 stop they should have Ferrari covered, but if they have to stop 3 times Ferrari may just steal another win.
#436218
Hey, Ferrari man, it looks like we're not the only ones with that opinion!! :clap:

James Allen wrote:">What can we learn from F1 practice about how Chinese GP will turn out?

The keys to Ferrari’s victory in Malaysia were there for all to see after Free Practice 2 in Sepang. So is the same true for this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, based on what we saw today?

There were plenty of laps to give us quite a good idea of how qualifying and the race might turn out.

The first thing to note is that Mercedes were very careful on their tyre preparation today, having suffered a painful setback in Malaysia when Lewis Hamilton got limited running due to technical issues and wasn’t able to do enough homework on the two tyre compounds.

Today the Mercedes drivers did a back to back comparison, similar to what Ferrari has been doing on Friday afternoons all season, with one driver working on softs and the other on mediums in parallel.

In terms of Qualifying pace, it looks like Mercedes has a margin once again. The margin today was 4/10ths, but the exact level is hard to judge because there was less difference between Mercedes’ single lap pace and its high fuel lap times than Ferrari.

Against that Raikkonen did his fastest time on the first lap of a four lap run, whereas Hamilton did an out-lap, hot lap and in-lap only. But it’s likely to be at least half a second again, once Mercedes turn up all the clever things on the engine,as they tend to do in Q3.

So if Rosberg gets it together it will be difficult for Ferrari or Red Bull, which looked more competitive today, to split the Mercedes on the front row.

However on the long runs, once again we can see a clear pattern of Ferrari suffering less tyre degradation than Mercedes and this could hold a key to the race. Vettel was in charge of working on the softs today and saw degradation of 0.16s per lap on them.

In contrast Lewis Hamilton had degradation of almost 0.2secs per lap on the softs. But Hamilton’s lap times were faster than Vettel’s again by around half a second per lap. But they would need to be if Mercedes were to need to do one stop more than Ferrari. A stop in Shanghai takes around 23 seconds to make.

On the medium tyres, Raikkonen and Rosberg were quite closely matched; again the Ferrari edged it: 0.1s per lap of degradation against 0.11s per lap for Rosberg.

There is a lot of talk about this being a default two stopper for most people, but from the look of how far Hamilton managed to go on a set of Softs before they fell apart (13 laps), there is a small risk that for a 56 lap race, two stops could be marginal and that a three stop Soft/Soft/Medium/Medium strategy could be on the cards. The expectation will be that the stable conditions will lead to the track rubbering in and this will make it kinder to the tyres and reduce the number of stops.

Shanghai is a track where you can focus on your fastest race strategy, because passing cars is not overly difficult thanks to the long straight, so working through traffic is not as big a problem as at other circuits.

However if Mercedes feel that the fastest strategy is to consider three stops, then Qualifying tyre strategy is going to be important, as in Malaysia. Here they will want to try to save a new set of Soft tyres if possible and the way to do that is to run mediums in Q1. But this could be risky if a Mclaren or Force India springs a surprise and puts a really strong lap together, which may force the Mercedes to use up a set of softs to get through to Q2.
#436221
 wrote:">Chinese GP: Practice notes - Pirelli

The Chinese Grand Prix presented a marked contrast to conditions in Malaysia two weeks ago, with ambient temperatures around 20 degrees centigrade today. In the past, these cool temperatures have often resulted in 'graining' - a phenomenon that occurs here when the tread surface cools down on the long straights. As a result, the compound loses its mechanical resistance and the tyre surface becomes brittle, resulting in a distinctive pattern of wear. On this occasion, despite low track temperatures, the medium compound experienced no graining and the soft compound had minimal graining throughout both sessions. Unusually, FP2 turned out to be a bit cooler than FP1, going against the normal pattern.

The performance gap between the two compounds has proved to be around 1.7 seconds, as anticipated before the cars took to the track, but this is likely to come down over the course of the weekend when the asphalt rubbers in. This performance gap (in line with the difference seen in Melbourne, where the same compounds were nominated) will provide plenty of opportunities for strategy in a race where tactics traditionally makes an important difference. With the longest straight of the year and a number of overtaking opportunities, there is also plenty of scope to make up places on track.

Mercedes was quickest in both free practice sessions today, with Lewis Hamilton. Both fastest times he set were quicker than the equivalent session times last year.

Paul Hembery: "The main thing today is that there's been very little graining despite the cool temperatures here, which is a positive step and has allowed the teams to prepare for the race effectively so far. The performance gap between the two compounds is close to what we expected, and we would anticipate a two-stop strategy to be the most likely option for the race on Sunday."

#436230
Qually results are not the best with Merc back to dominating being a second ahead of Vettel who is the best of the rest. Will Ferrari have a tire wear advantage ala Malaysia or will it be a dog fight with Williams for the only available podium spot?

Ham Ros Vet is my guess.

1. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 35.782s
2. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 35.824s
3. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 36.687s
4. Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes 1m 36.954s
5. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes 1m 37.143s
6. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 37.232s
7. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-Renault 1m 37.540s
8. Romain Grosjean FRA Lotus-Mercedes 1m 37.905s
9. Felipe Nasr BRZ Sauber-Ferrari 1m 38.067s
10. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari 1m 38.158s

11. Pastor Maldonado VEN Lotus-Mercedes 1m 38.134s
12. Daniil Kvyat RUS Red Bull-Renault 1m 38.209s
13. Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso-Renault 1m 38.393s
14. Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Renault 1m 38.538s
15. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes 1m 39.290s

16. Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes 1m 39.216s
17. Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda 1m 39.276s
18. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1m 39.280s
19. Will Stevens GBR Manor Marussia-Ferrari 1m 42.091s
20. Roberto Merhi ESP Manor Marussia-Ferrari 1m 42.842s
#436234
Good to see a number of teams potentially in the mix again. I have a few thoughts for the race:

- I think Mercedes will revert to form being substantially quicker than everybody else.

- In the race I think Williams will be pushing Vettel hard, I actually think they have a quicker package than Ferrari this weekend.

- McLaren seem to be progressing, and it wouldn't surprise me at the end of the race if one or even both were to be flirting with the lower end of the points scoring positions.

Should be a good race even if all of that is nonsense!! :)
#436240
- McLaren seem to be progressing, and it wouldn't surprise me at the end of the race if one or even both were to be flirting with the lower end of the points scoring positions.)

I think that might take a couple of retirements, but there are positive signs coming from McLaren, for a moment in Q1 I though McLaren might get one of their cars into Q2...
#436245
We have learnt something about the speed of the Ferrari and the Mercedes, when the car is heavy with fuel the ferrari is able to keep up and threaten the Mercedes but as the fuel burns off and gets lighter Mercedes as long as the drivers keep their tyres in good shape is able move very far ahead, so speed advantage has not been nullified completely.

Well done by Lewis and Nico today to keep their tyres well, and maybe temperatures were good to them today which they weren't in Malaysia. So Ferrari will threaten their lead again if temperatures favour possibly, it depends if the aerodynamic performance upgrades which are brought in to negate this from happening again, if those upgrades are useless, then we will see Ferrari threatening once again.

I just wonder if Vettel was to push further when their cars are heavy say at the start do a overtake before they reach the first corner, if perhaps Mercedes will be vulnerable and won't be able to overtake Ferrari whilst its heavy. If it were possible for them to do so today it might have changed the outcome, Vettel would have led for more of the race but I wonder when the Mercedes is lighter later if we wouldn't have seen a fight for first and then Lewis overtake and win. I hope to see a race like that this season.
#436246
Whatever Rosberg's feelings about it, Hamilton controlled the race perfectly - they were marginal on using softs for 2 stints and Hamilton managed his race as he needed to. Vettel was a threat for a bit of the 2nd stint but as was discussed after the race Vettel pushed to pass Rosberg on track and took too much out of the tyres which compromised him a bit - although Ferrari weren't quick enough on the mediums anyway.

While Rosberg will moan at Hamilton, nothing Hamilton did affected the result and unless Ferrari can find another half a second it looks like Hamilton is going to cruise to the title!

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