To
no great surprise, Mercedes continued their dominant start to the season as
they once again took pole, victory, fastest lap, and led every lap – no one
else has done any of these things so far this season (Nico Hülkenberg came closest by leading half a lap in Sepang).
However, there was one rather bizarre occurrence in Shanghai – the checkered
flag was waved prematurely. Lewis Hamilton took the flag at the end of lap 55
(out of 56) and, according to the regulations, this resulted in the race being
called after 54 laps. Ultimately, it made little difference – luckily for the
FIA. Not a classic race by any stretch but I reiterate my point from last week
that Mercedes should win every race this season provided they can get one car
home. Finally, before we get cracking, an astonishing twenty cars finished the race – which is simply phenomenal given
this was only the fourth race in the new era of F1.
 |
| Lewis scored his first F1 hat-trick (the customary Mercedes team photo will return next week) Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas (Facebook) |
1. Lewis Hamilton (no change)
It’s
going to be difficult to find original things to write for Lewis Hamilton if he
carries on at this rate. His third straight victory was his 25th
overall – matching Jim Clark & Niki Lauda, while his 34th pole
position saw him move one clear of Clark and Alain Prost for sole possession of
fourth on the all-time list
2. Nico Rosberg (no change)
It
was Rosberg’s turn to crack in qualifying as a pair of mistakes saw him start
behind the Red Bulls – and he fell further back after a poor start. Such is the
pace of the Mercedes, it was only a matter of time before he recovered to
complete Merc’s now customary 1-2 finish. He retains his championship lead for
another race although he is yet to beat Lewis in a straight race battle.
 |
| Following the team battle mayhem of Bahrain, there was just the one this weekend Source: Red Bull Racing (Facebook) |
=3. Daniil Kvyat (no change), Nico Hülkenberg (up one spot) & Daniel Ricciardo (up two
spots)
It’s
just not possible to split this trio after four races. I juggled the trio
around positions 3-4-5 but figured that this was simply the fairest solution. I
mentioned last week how The Hulk only just missed out on moving up to P3 in the
F1 Power Rankings, a position which
he does now occupy after the Chinese weekend. It was a return to his form of
Australia and Malaysia as he comfortably outperformed Sergio Pérez and
continued his excellent start to the season.
It
was touch-and-go whether Kvyat would retain third spot and I almost dropped him
behind the other two as he was the only one who was outqualified by his
team-mate. However, this was the teenager’s first time on the track and a storming
first lap saw him overtake Jean-Éric Vergne – which resulted in him earning his
third points-scoring finish in four races. It has been a dream start to his F1
career.
I
could almost copy and paste what I wrote last week for Danny Ric – out-qualified
and out-raced his illustrious team-mate and certainly ruffled his feathers on
Sunday. Although he once again came up just short of a podium finish, his
performance will have no doubt eased the pain of the lost appeal for his
Melbourne DQ. He probably deserved to move up one spot – just like Hülkenberg –
but, with a tie for third, that wouldn’t have been possible; so he joins the
party.
6. Fernando Alonso (up four spots)
Alonso
is a big gainer this week, scoring Ferrari’s first podium of the season as the
Marco Mattiacci era begins. In a similar manner to Hülkenberg, Alonso once
again flexed his muscles in the team battle as he comprehensively destroyed
Kimi Räikkönen, having been outqualified by the Finn in Sakhir. Another podium
finish next time out in front of his adoring home fans would be a dream result.
 |
| It was Alonso who took best of the rest this week Source: Scuderia Ferrari (Facebook) |
7. Valtteri Bottas (down one spot)
After
an eventful opening trio of races, Shanghai proved to be a much quieter – but no
less successful – weekend for Bottas. Having been narrowly outqualified by
Felipe Massa in qualifying, he then survived first corner contact with Rosberg
and settled down into a controlled race – almost stealing sixth off Hülkenberg
in the closing stages. The good news for Williams was that they qualified strongly
in a wet quali session; the bad news is that they have still yet to fully deliver
on their early season promise.
8. Romain Grosjean (up five spots)
Grosjean
is another big mover this week as he continued to work his way up the pecking
order. A fantastic effort in quali saw him reach Q3 (where he then ran out of
intermediate tyres) and he was running strongly in the points until his gearbox
failed. It has been an incredibly difficult start for Lotus but Grosjean has
done a superb job leading the team.
9. Felipe Massa (up three spots)
Williams’
weekend was discussed in more detail above but it was a disappointing end to
what was proving to be a solid weekend for Massa as a mix-up on his rear tyres
at his opening pit-stop effectively ended his race. He was very lucky not to
have a mammoth accident at the start; surviving a hefty touch with Alonso as he
rocketed off the line but had nowhere to go.
 |
| The Williams mechanics suffered from not knowing their left from their right Source: F1Fanatic |
10. Sebastian Vettel (down two spots)
“Tough luck”
(it was tempting simply to write those two words and move on). Radio Vettel
sent social networks into a frenzy during the race on Sunday as memories of
Malaysia 2013 came to the fore. For what it’s worth, what Vettel did was no
different to what Massa did in Malaysia this season – yet the same people who
criticized Vettel for his “tough luck” comment were those who lauded Massa for
his Malaysia actions. It has clearly been a disappointing start to the season
for Red Bull and it is clear that Ricciardo has been able to adapt and extract
more from the RB10; but Vettel is not a four-time champion for no reason. He
will be working furiously to understand his problems and come back stronger in
Catalunya. Incidentally, contrary to his post-race comments, it seems pretty
clear to me that he ran wide into Turn 1 when Ricciardo did eventually overtake
him, rather than deliberately move out the way.
11. Jenson Button (down four spots)
Ron
Dennis might be back but McLaren have already reverted back to their 2013 form
after a promising start to the new season. Both cars went out in Q3 and had bad
starts; and neither challenged the top ten all race long. JB did at least
manage to keep ahead of his rookie team-mate.
12. Sergio Pérez (down three spots)
As
mentioned earlier, Checo was soundly thrashed by The Hulk again this weekend; his
podium heroics of Bahrain were replaced by a lacklustre Q2 effort that saw him
start 16th. To his credit, an
excellent first lap put him into points-scoring contention and he duly obliged
by picking up points for the third time this season (out of three races, he was
a DNS in Sepang). Still, he was almost half a minute behind his team-mate.
13. Kevin Magnussen (down two spots)
K-Mag
has slowly slipped down the F1 Power
Rankings after his dream start in Melbourne, echoing his team’s overall
performance. He again seemed a tad over-anxious in the opening laps,
threatening to cause a collision, but he settled down into a solid race and
pretty much matched Button throughout. However, as Pérez found out last season,
that might not be enough to save his bacon – especially with Stoffel Vandoorne
waiting in the wings. Early days yet, though.
14. Kamui Kobayashi (up two spots)
Another
fine weekend for KK as he won the Caterham/Marussia battle in both quali and
the race. Of course, he didn’t actually as the chequered flag was waved a lap early;
thus nullifying his excellent pass on Jules Bianchi but, luckily for Caterham,
at least it was only for 17th place – a result that will have no
bearing on the outcome in the battle for tenth in the constructors’
championship.
 |
| Much like Grosjean, Koba has done a good job leading his team Source: Caterham F1 Team (Facebook) |
15. Jean-Éric Vergne (no change)
Mixed
weekend for JEV; a good effort in quali saw him reach Q3 but that evaporated on
the opening lap with a poor start. Despite being level on points with his rookie
team-mate, Vergne has failed to score since the season opener in Melbourne.
=16. Jules Bianchi (up three spots) & Max Chilton (no change)
The
Marussia drivers find themselves locked together at P16 in this week’s F1 Power Rankings. After a shaky start
to this season, Bianchi finally had a trouble-free weekend as he comfortably
shaded his team-mate. Not the best weekend for Max but at least he edged Marcus
Ericsson on Sunday.
18. Kimi Räikkönen (down five spots)
Crikey.
While Alonso scored his first podium of 2014, Räikkönen struggled all weekend;
knocked out in Q2 before finishing over fifty
seconds behind his team-mate in the race.
 |
| This was probably the happiest Kimi was all weekend (maybe even all season) Source: F1Fanatic |
19. Esteban Gutiérrez (down one spot)
Sauber’s
miserable start to F1’s new era continued as neither car was remotely close to
troubling the top ten all weekend long. They’ll hope to close the gap with
their Barcelona upgrades – although with other teams sure to do the same, it
may not be enough.
 |
| Tough times at Sauber Source: F1Fanatic |
20. Marcus Ericsson (no change)
Credit
the young Swede for outqualifying Chilton but his Sunday afternoon was largely
spent alone at the back of the pack. Being the only rookie in the
Caterham/Marussia battle, the opening few flyaway races were always going to be
difficult; he’ll hope that the more familiar European tracks will help him
raise his profile.
21.
Adrian Sutil (no change) & 22.
Pastor Maldonado (no change)
This
duo stay rooted to the foot of the F1
Power Rankings. Maldonado was especially hapless on Friday as he appeared
to just drive off the track early in FP1 before crashing in Shanghai’s infamous
pit lane. The only good news for Pastor was that he saw the checkered flag,
which is a good deal better than what Sutil achieved. Another dreadful weekend
for the Swiss team saw their German driver retire with engine trouble in the
opening laps.
 |
| Oh dear... Source: FOM TV images |
All views expressed in this blog are my own and no copyright
infringement is intended.
No comments:
Post a Comment