1.4.10

This race certainly made up for the dull season opener in Bahrain. There was incident and action aplenty, with loads of overtaking. The lap chart bears this out with massive wiggling in the first quarter of the race. There's a bit of a dull parallel lines period from five eights to seven eighths, then another burst of action near the end (click to enlarge).

The initial excitement was caused by the weather. It started to rain just before the off, not heavily but enough for intermediates. There was an outbreak of opening lap mayhem which involved three world champions! Alonso made a bad start and turned in on Button which punted the Ferrari into Schumacher. It was no-one's fault. The mirrors of F1 cars have much more to do with aerodynamics than rearward visibility and Alonso probably just did not see Button who could do nothing to avoid him. [Outboard mirrors are to be banned from the Chinese GP in two weeks - Ed]. JB continued, Alonso spun and ended up dead last and Schuey had to stop to change a crimped front wing. No action was deemed necessary by the Stewards. Poleman Vettel got away well in the lead and Massa made a demon start, getting up into second.

Then the front wing of Kobayashi's Sauber fell off, this surfboarded him into a barrier, which he skidded along then bounced off into Buemi's Toro Rosso and then Hulkenburg's Williams. There was a blizzard of carbon fibre and the Safety Car was deployed. When it came in the rain had effectively stopped. There then followed a great period of dicing, we saw Alonso carving his way up through the field, Schuey passing the Virgin of di Grassi, then being passed back, which has to be some sort of a miracle. Hamilton got past Button and Webber past Hamilton, amongst loads of ducking and diving. These conditions are always a chance for a driver to punch above the weight of his car, which in this case it was Kubica who had qualified his Lada ninth and was running fourth, thus reminding us of his ability.

As it turned out one of the definitive actions of the race happened on Lap 6 when Button pitted for slicks when sixth, the first to do so. It all looked very slithery and he slid off on his out lap but managed to bump across a gravel trap and rejoin. Messrs. Brundle & Coulthard thought it was too early, but they were wrong... JB soon began to set fastest sector times and a couple of laps later they all piled in to the pits. Well all but the Red Bulls, their inters were OK and Vettel stayed out a lap longer than the pack and Webber a lap longer than him, which was a lap too long.

Button drafted past the slick-shod Kubica, so presumably he managed to shove something appropriate into the "F" duct 'ole at the right time. When the pit stops were over it was Vettel from Button, Kubica, Rosberg, Massa, Rosberg, Webber and Hamilton. There followed a good bit where Webber did Massa, Hamilton followed him through, overtook Webber on the straight, who tried to get back up the inside, fell off, touched Hamilton who slowed and Massa re-passed them both! Really great stuff and the extra straightline speed of the Macca looked to be doing the trick. This went on for a number of laps and Hamilton got up to third and meanwhile Alonso carved his way up to eighth.

Whilst all this scrapping was going on behind him, at the sharp end Vettel was untroubled until lap 25 when he went straight on in a corner. Initially reported as an exploding front disc, Brembo later said something had broken in the front hub. For the second race in succession Vettel was denied a win by mechanical failure, but this time it was worse - nil points. Button took the lead. His famously smooth style must have helped and he didn't have to stop again for fresh tyres on his way to a comfortable win. His team mate however did have to stop as the McLaren team judged he was in danger from those behind. This dropped him behind the Ferrari train of Massa and Alonso. Clearly furious, he even criticised the strategy over the radio. He hunted Alonso down, feinted to pass him, had to get out of it and was punted off by Webber who appeared to drive most of the race in a red mist, crazed by patriotic fervour.

Rosberg nipped through to take fifth, Hamilton recovered to finish sixth, Vitantonio Liuzzi was seventh, in the points for Force India for the second race in a row, as was Rubens behind him in his Williams. Ninth was Webber and tenth Schuey. He had a titanic struggle for most of the race with Jaime Alguersuari, half his age, in a Toro Rosso, eventually having to bang wheels to get past him. Not at all what he would have envisaged for his F1 comeback.

So, a great race, but why were they able to overtake? Undoubtedly, much was down to the rain. There wasn't much grip, conditions were unknown and changing lap-by-lap. There was more variability in drivers' laps and they were making mistakes. In other words there was a bigger and different shaped operating envelope for each and every lap for each and every driver. These overlaps made for overtaking opportunities. If the one in front was too early or late on the throttle coming out of one corner and too early or late onto the brakes going into the next it gave the bloke behind an opportunity. Then, if in passing, the passer slid off the dry line, it gave the passee a chance to get him back.

I'm sure the track topography helped too. Not just the layout but features like white lines, gravel traps etc. This proved yet again that proper tracks are what's needed rather than the sterile, tawdry Tilkedromes so beloved of Bernie. Also, the aero was undoubtedly less effective and important in the low grip conditions on inters, as was shown by how passing got more difficult as the track dried up. This was undoubtedly the inspiration for Max's dreaded grooved tyres. These failed and I've seen everything from suggestions that rock-hard tyres with much less grip, to bigger, softer tyres with more is the answer! As Schuey said cleverer brains than his have for many years tried to reverse the effects of aero, so there was no point in asking him how to do it. This however was a more helpful utterance than Alonso who said that if people found F1 dull then they should find something else to watch. Bet the sponsors loved that! Something must be done.

Other random observations are: astonishment at Rob Smedley telling Massa how to drive in detail over the radio. Karun Chandhok making it to the end for HRT, albeit four laps down. How odd it is to see Schuey in grey not red. Nick Wirth struggling to explain why the fuel tank of the Virgin is too small for them to complete a race. My heart skipping a beat everytime the commentators said "Senna". Every time someone mentioning tyres it was unfailingly negative. The pleasure of watching the newcomers, with no aero, slipping and sliding around. This in huge contrast to the Red Bulls which looked glued down. In fact they looked looked fab all weekend, leading to dark mutterings about whether they have some form of mechanical active ride which automatically raises ride height in parc fermé from low fuel qualifying ready for heavy fuel race conditions. Whether this is by gas springs, leakage, temperature, osmosis, unobtanium spring platforms or sky hooks no-one seems sure. Red Bull have invited a rules "clarification".

It looks like the serene Button might be getting to Hamilton, who was irritable throughout the weekend, this undoubtedly not being helped by his being pulled by the cops for doing burnouts and fish-tails on the road on Friday. If Hamilton is getting rattled by Jenson, this is quite a surprise, since most pundits believed Lewis would hand Jenson his, err, posterior. Alonso was seemingly not bothered by being held up behind Massa, who didn't move over, neither did the team hint that he ought to. All appears calm at the moment but pressure will be building up down deep. However, in-car the Ferraris looked good, if not as good as the Dead Bulls, they were not too bad in qualifying and did OK in the race. They are still 1 - 2 in the drivers' championship with a good lead in the constructors' - which is, after all, what it's all about.

Stefano Domenicali: “We can be satisfied with this result. At the end of an incident packed race we managed to get one driver onto the podium and the other – who had been last after the first corner – into fourth spot. Fernando staged a fantastic climb through the field and might have got an even better result, but we know overtaking is always difficult, especially when it involves cars with similar performance levels. He was perfect when defending his position against Hamilton in the closing stages. Felipe got a really good start which formed the basis of his final result: he had a difficult weekend and I am sure this second consecutive podium is pleasing for him. ”

Felipe Massa: “ Given everything that happened, rain at the start, the safety car, the switch to slick tyres when the track was still very slippery – we did a great job. These points are very important for the classification: I have never been very lucky here and in the past, I have often struggled in the early part of the season. The key to getting on the podium was the start. I managed not to spin the wheels, while other drivers struggled for grip and I managed to move up to second. Then I lost some places in the early stages, when I had a few problems with grip, but thanks to the strategy, I then managed to make up some. I was able to close on Kubica but I never had a real chance of passing him, while behind me Fernando got very close on more than one occasion, making the most of a few errors. I think the spectators in the grandstands and in front of their TV screens had fun today: you could hardly call it boring!”

Fernando Alonso: “I am pleased with this result. I got an awful start, because I had wheel spin on a white line and was last after the first corner following a collision with two other cars, so to finish fourth is very significant, especially given what happened to some other drivers, meaning we have increased our lead over some of our closest rivals in the title fight. Thanks to the strategy, we managed to get this result. The car was perfect and we were able to run a very long stint with the soft tyres. When I found myself behind Felipe, maybe I could have gone a bit quicker, but we know it’s very hard to pass in Formula 1 and between team-mates, one should not take any unnecessary risks. If we had managed to get past Kubica, then it might have been a different story. For sure, after an exciting and action packed race like this, I don’t think we’ll hear much more talk about boring races!”