Formula One 2011

MBDTF · April 11, 2011

Someone over on another forum actually showed that from the last corner of the lap before the accident, Lewis actually moved five times to try and stop Alonso from passing him; some of them aren't as clear cut as others, but there were definitely two occasions where he broke the rules. I seem to remember he got a reprimand at some point last year for doing the same, so in a way it's only fair. If anything, the penalty was harsher on Alonso, since the commentators said that the accident was ultimately a racing incident and that they shouldn't be penalised, whereas Hamilton's blocking was less a racing incident and more...well, obvious blocking.

FIA = Ferrari Interntional Assistance.

Lineker · April 11, 2011

I was a fool to think that I could work a 12-hour shift in the BBC newsroom and not have the race result spoiled for me. (N). Anyway, just finished watching it now.

Sebastian Vettel remains unbeaten in the 2011 Formula 1 season after taking another Malaysian Grand Prix victory, despite running without KERS on his Red Bull for much of the race.

The world champion was not able to dominate, but had enough speed to stay clear of his rivals in a very competitive race at a dry Sepang.

Jenson Button took second for McLaren, with his team-mate Lewis Hamilton only seventh after tyre troubles.

Nick Heidfeld gave Renault its second podium in as many races as he held off Mark Webber for third after a complicated afternoon for the second Red Bull. The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were fifth and sixth after the latter damaged his front wing clipping Hamilton's car.

Vettel seemed to be handed an easy afternoon at the start, for while he clearly held the lead through a busy first corner, the Renaults of Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov surged down the outside to move from sixth and eighth on the grid to second and fifth, either side of Hamilton and Button's McLarens, and ahead of Massa and Alonso's Ferraris.

It was worse still for Webber - his KERS already seemingly not working, the Australian plunged to ninth and was passed by a combative Kamui Kobayashi further around the lap.

Heidfeld did not lose too much time to Vettel, though, the Renault staying within seven seconds of the leading Red Bull through the first stint. When Heidfeld then lost ground in the first stops, that released the McLarens and the rapidly-recovering Alonso to start gaining on Vettel.

While Hamilton got Vettel's lead down to under four seconds, Alonso passed Button for third into the first corner early in the second stint and started closing in as well.

Vettel then looked even more vulnerable after the second of the leaders' three pitstops when his team informed him that he could no longer use his KERS. But his pursuers' hopes of taking advantage of this were quickly dashed - even without the energy boosting system Vettel managed to pull clear during this stint, stretching his lead over Hamilton back up to eight seconds.

It was Button who started making progress in the second half of the race, taking third back from Alonso in the second pitstops, and setting some strong times thereafter, then getting second from Hamilton at the next pit sequence when a left-front issue slowed the latter slightly.

As Button then started inching up towards Vettel, Hamilton struggled badly for pace in the final hard-tyre stint. Alonso was soon all over the back of him, but with his DRS not working, the Ferrari had to be creative to try and pass. On lap 45 Alonso got too close through Turn 3, clipping the rear of the McLaren and damaging his front wing, forcing an extra stop.

Hamilton was then caught by first Heidfeld, who slipped past into Turn 1 using the DRS with four laps to go, then the recovering Webber - who despite being on a four-stop strategy and still without KERS, managed to get back up with the leaders. He grabbed fourth when Hamilton slid off the road briefly, and the McLaren gave up and pitted for a fourth time immediately afterwards.

Vettel kept Button at arm's length and came home to win by 3.2s, with Heidfeld resisting everything Webber threw at him over the final laps to claim third.

Alonso charged back onto Massa's tail but had to settle for sixth behind his team-mate, with Hamilton only seventh after his additional stop.

Petrov was set for seventh until a wild moment on lap 53, when he ran wide and tried to rejoin flat-out over the grass, until to hit a deep and send his Renault high into the air, breaking its steering.

Kobayashi managed to make a two-stop strategy work to take eighth, after several spectacular battles with Michael Schumacher, who was ninth on a tough afternoon for Mercedes. His team-mate Nico Rosberg fell into the midfield on lap one and never recovered, finishing 12th behind the two Force Indias, as Paul di Resta grabbed another point with a mature drive in his second grand prix.

Further back, Lotus got closer to the established midfield pace than ever before as Heikki Kovalainen finished 15th behind the Toro Rossos. Both Williams retired, as did Melbourne hero Sergio Perez after the Sauber sustained damage from running over debris.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Malaysian Grand Prix
Sepang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;
56 laps; 310.408km;
Weather: Dry.

Classified:

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h37:39.832
2. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 3.261
3. Heidfeld Renault + 25.075
4. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 26.384
5. Massa Ferrari + 36.958
6. Alonso Ferrari + 37.248
7. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 49.957
8. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:07.239
9. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:24.896
10. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:31.563
11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:41.379
12. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap
13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
14. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
15. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 1 lap
16. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
17. Petrov Renault + 4 laps

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:40.571

Not classified/retirements:

Driver Team On lap
Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 47
D-Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 43
Trulli Lotus-Renault 32
Perez Sauber-Ferrari 24
Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 23
Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 15
Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 9

World Championship standings, round 2:

Drivers: Constructors:
1. Sebastian Vettel 50 1. Red Bull/Renault 72
2. Jenson Button 26 2. McLaren/Mercedes 48
3. Lewis Hamilton 22 3. Ferrari 36
4. Mark Webber 22 4. Renault 30
5. Fernando Alonso 20 5. Toro Rosso/Ferrari 4
6. Felipe Massa 16 6. Sauber/Ferrari 4
7. Nick Heidfeld 15 7. Force India/Mercedes 4
8. Vitaly Petrov 15 8. Mercedes 2
9. Kamui Kobayashi 6
10. Sebastien Buemi 4
11. Adrian Sutil 2
12. Michael Schumacher 2
13. Paul di Resta 2

All timing unofficial[/code]

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were handed 20-second penalties following the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

The McLaren driver, who endured a difficult race and finished in seventh position, was handed the penalty for making more than one move to defend his position when fighting with Alonso.

Ferrari driver Alonso was given the penalty after he made contact with Hamilton during their fight, the Spaniard damaging his front wing and having to pit to replace it.

Both were given post-race drive-throughs, meaning 20 seconds added to their final times.

The penalty has dropped Hamilton to eighth, with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi taking seventh.

Alonso keeps sixth place.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso have both accepted the penalties they were handed down by the race stewards at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Both men were given 20-second time penalties in lieu of drive-throughs for breaching the regulations during their battle for third spot in the closing stages of the Sepang event.

Hamilton was punished for breaching Article 20.2 of the Sporting Regulations - which states that 'manoeuvres liable to hinder other drivers, such as more than one change of direction to defend a position...are not permitted."

Alonso, who had been pursuing Hamilton at the time, broke Article 16.1 of the Sporting Regulation which punishes drivers who cause a collision.

Hamilton got his penalty for his driving on the lap before he got hit by Alonso.

Hamilton said he was not shocked to have been hit with the penalty – which was for changing direction twice on the main straight.

Although Hamilton had escaped punishment for weaving down the straight last year to try and break Vitaly Petrov's tow, the FIA tightened up the driving standards regulations at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council last December.

"I knew I was going to get a penalty. I'm not surprised," explained Hamilton. "I was in with the stewards, so I anticipated it. I always try to assume the worst-case scenario. It's only one spot, and it's not really made me feel any worse than how the weekend has gone anyway."

Asked whether he felt it was fair, Hamilton said: "It's racing. I'm not going to argue or disagree with the penalty.

"From my side I'm not allowed to move more than once. Do I class it as dangerous? No, but that's the rule. Twenty seconds is not such a bad penalty for it. As for Fernando, he hit me, he got a 20-second penalty, but it didn't really do anything to him. It doesn't exactly work out as a penalty, but again, that's racing."

Alonso also played down the significance of the punishment – especially because his penalty did not result in a loss of position.

"It doesn't change positions, so there is no a big drama," he said. "I finished sixth in the race anyway, and it was a race incident. I tried to overtake, we touched each other and unfortunately I broke the front wing and had to pit again, and I lost the podium possibility. But in the next race I will try again."

When asked if he blamed himself or Hamilton for their collision, Alonso said: "It is one of those things. You try and race and we touched each other.

"The stewards called us to see our opinions and the decision is this. We are not the ones that decide, or have anything to say about the decision. We try to race, to try to enjoy the race in the cockpit and hopefully next time we finish both with no problems."

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have been warned that there may be no quick fix to the KERS issues that appear to be the only chink in Red Bull Racing's armour at the moment.

Although Vettel has won the first two races of the season, the German and team-mate Webber have battled with ongoing KERS issues - and neither driver had a fully functioning system throughout the whole Malaysian Grand Prix.

And with just one week until the next race in China, which is another event where KERS is crucial for lap time, Red Bull technical chief Adrian Newey has admitted that his outfit is still only beginning to get on top of the hybrid system.

"The reality is that it is a system in its infancy," said Newey. "We are not a manufacturer team so we are having to develop KERS ourselves, which has not been our area of expertise in the past.

"We are also doing it on a limited resource, limited budget and with limited experience, so we are on a rapid learning curve. How long it takes us to get to the top of that learning curve remains to be seen."

When asked if the problems were such that they could take some time, Newey said: "The fact that we are still finding new problems implies that is the case."

Some of the problems that Red Bull Racing has suffered with its KERS have been related to the ultra-aggressive packaging that Newey has demanded for the RB7 – but he has insisted that the team has not been too on the edge with it.

"I don't think so," he said. "If the problems we had were all related to the packaging then the answer would be yes, but they are not."

Webber did not run KERS at all in the Malaysian GP, after suffering a problem with it prior to the start, while Vettel was told not to use his in the second half of the race.

"With Mark we had a problem off the line that meant he could not use it at all, during the race, including the start," said Newey. "He had a problem on the lap to the startline – it was a fresh problem, not a problem we have had before.

"With Seb – we had a problem that meant we could have continued to run it, but from a safety point of view we thought it best to turn it off and not take any risks."

Martin Whitmarsh will continue in his role as chairman of the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) for 2011, as AUTOSPORT exclusively revealed last year.

At a meeting of FOTA that took place at Sepang on Sunday morning, Whitmarsh's continued role was ratified - with Renault's Eric Boullier becoming vice-chairman, replacing Ferrari's Stefano Domenicali.

"Personally for me it is a great endorsement and it is also a way for me, as the latest from the team principal club, to be more involved and to bring maybe some more ideas and clearly voice them."

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner will maintain his role as chairman of the Sporting Regulations Working Group, with Aldo Costa taking over from Ross Brawn as head of the Technical Regulations Working Group.

Although no agreement was reached on amendments to the Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA), FOTA still hopes to make progress over the course of the season.

In a statement issued on Sunday, FOTA said: "FOTA teams are keen to continue working together, and with all other stakeholders, to further increase the global reach of Formula 1 and look forward to another challenging racing season."

Boullier said FOTA had a clear understanding of its direction in F1's current, less manufacturer-reliant, era.

"FOTA was created by teams but by this, most of the teams were backed by manufacturers," he said. "In a couple of years this changed dramatically and most of them are now independent/private.

"I think we are clearly part of the show and obviously out of the political game we could do much more, as stakeholders together and trying to again bring out everything the best in the interests of the teams."

A good race. Vettel looks unbeatable but Newey is going to have to get KERS working for China, otherwise the Renault's and McLaren's will be able to get them on the long straight. Kobayashi/Schumacher was a fantastic race-long duel, and the Lotus' did really well I thought. Petrov's airtime was terrifying. Hope he's ok!

As for the penalties? Well, I'm with Kats on this one. Plus I just plain don't care for Lewis Hamilton.

Post-race press conference:

[spoiler]TV UNILATERALS

Q. Sebastian, never an easy day at the office here in Malaysia but as you told the team on the radio, 'I love coming to work', and when you take home the win it is hardly surprising.

Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah I guess so. Another great day. The start was crucial. I thought I had a really good start and then I saw Lewis lining up behind me quickly. Then I was surprised going into turn one as all of a sudden I saw something black in my mirrors. I knew it was a Lotus and then I realised it was Nick. Obviously for the first stint it was a good thing to happen as I could pull away lap by lap. I think the grand prix was different to what we saw two weeks ago especially with tyres going off. On the one side you do not want to be the first in as the shorter you get the more stops you might have to do in the end, but on the other hand if someone goes in he has the advantage on new tyres and might undercut you. I think it was quite difficult and it was tight with Lewis but I always had a couple of seconds in hand so we could control that - but still it was never easy until the last stint. Lewis had a problem, I don't know what happened to him but I realised Jenson was behind and I could comfortably control the gap so with not too many laps to go it was quite good. Very pleased as I said. I love what I do and I don't think I can be happier at this stage.

Q. Different to Australia but in some respect very much the same. Lap 29, you are told you cannot use KERS. Did you know the problem and how much of a difference did it make to your car and your feelings at the time?

SV: Yeah, it was not according to plan, but then it was coming back. It was a little bit on-off during the race. It is something we have to work on but still never forget two weeks ago we didn't race it at all and today it was very crucial at the start. Without KERS again we would have been in a completely different position and the race would have unfolded in a different way. It was giving us what we needed and being in a luxury situation, being a little bit ahead, we had a little problem so we turned it off and it went back on. But coming here only 10 days overseas, reacting the way we did, we can be very proud of ourselves. We cannot stop pushing. We have seen how close it is, much closer here than in Australia, so that's how quickly things can change. We have to keep our heads cool, keep working, keep pushing, but I am not worried to be honest. All the guys, they know that this is the only way forward so for today we all enjoy and we can be very proud.

Q. Jenson, I would imagine you will enjoy second place?

Jenson BUTTON: Yeah, it was a really confusing race in a way, trying to understand the pit-stops and whether it was worth looking after tyres or not through the stints. So it was pretty tricky. Then, the last stint, when we put the prime tyre on, the car came alive and I had so much more grip. I had a feeling that the tyre wasn't going to go the same way as the soft tyre and my pace was much better in the last stint. A fun race. A couple of really good battles. Happy to come away with a second. I had the team telling me to back it off and look after the tyres but in a racer's mind you want to push as hard as you can as you want to try and catch the leader. Even though it was not really on you have still got to give it a go, so I had a lot of fun out there and great to get 18 points.

Q. The team told you no-one had achieved a 19 lap stint on the prime tyre at any stage this weekend and you did it in your final stint. Give us an indication as to how difficult it is to preserve these tyres.

JB: Well the thing is it's very difficult to understand what to do with the tyre. If you try and preserve it sometimes you make the situation worse as you are not carrying as much speed through a high-speed corner and then you get less downforce and you damage the tyre more so it is a very, very tricky situation to be in. But I think we did pretty well. As we went through the race I think we understood the tyre a lot more and our consistency was much, much better with the tyre and we didn't get down to the canvas so a big thank you to the team. They did a magnificent job today with the pit-stops and the strategy and I think we have made some good progress so, looking forward to China, we should be excited and hopefully we can challenge these guys.

Q. Nick, congratulations on your first podium since Malaysia in 2009. So much happened in the middle of the race but, specifically, tell us about your start and then tell us how you managed to hang onto third place under pressure from Mark Webber at the end?

Nick HEIDFELD: The start was fantastic. Good fun. In Australia I made up many positions on the start but I didn't expect the same happening when starting from sixth rather than 18th or whatever it was in Australia. I found myself actually fighting with Sebastian who watched me in the mirror and just paced himself to keep me behind. After that I did the best I could but Sebastian was quite a bit quicker. Then in the first stint there were some drops [of rain] coming down and I called the box to say my tyres were going off and they said 'stay out, there might be rain coming so we don't want to do an extra pit-stop'. Then, our first pit-stop was not perfect, lost one or two positions, and after that I was a bit lucky with Fernando (Alonso) who lost his front wing or damaged his front wing and had to do an extra pit-stop. I had some good pace later on, especially on the prime tyres, similar to the McLarens probably and had to defend from Mark towards the end when he came flying by. But I think once he was behind me his tyres also started to degrade. I used my KERS just in places where I needed to defend and it is great to come third. Second podium for Lotus Renault. It is a great step forward from last season.

Q. Sebastian, defending champion and two wins out of two in your defensive year. I would imagine you are feeling very positive going through to China now – or is there a renewed threat from McLaren?

SV: Well I mean first of all we can be happy today and enjoy and try to take that momentum into the next race. As you said two races, two out two is perfect, couldn't be any better but there is still a very long way to go. The championship is far away. There are a lot of points still to get so we have to keep our feet on the ground. At the moment things are looking good. I think we worked hard over the winter so if that is the reward then I think there is no problem putting even harder work in. I am very happy with that and tomorrow starts China and we see how we get on there.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Sebastian, what a start to the season. Your 12th win and I think it is four wins in a row if we count last year as well.

SV: I don't know. I don't count. I think it is better not to. Yeah, very good result. I was very pleased with yesterday's result especially as we knew going into qualifying it will be tight and we expected similar in the race so the start was very important. Again thanks to the boys, thanks to the team. I think it shows how – I mean we had some bad experience two years ago so we don't need to do that again –important KERS is and it saved our life today at the start. I was focussed on Lewis behind me and all of a sudden Nick was there so it was quite funny in a way. I had to defend a little bit into Turn Two, focus on a good exit which was crucial as then I was ahead and could use the first stint to build up a little gap. I think we were a little bit quicker than the Renault, which was behind, or the Lotus. Then I tried to take that gap into each stint. It was a bit of a luxury situation as we could wait for other people to do the stop. Of course, they were closing then as it is quite powerful. If you change tyres you come out and you are much quicker than the guys out on the circuit with the used tyres, But with a couple of seconds in hand we had this luxury so there was no need to panic. Coming in first, especially the first stint, it started to drizzle quite heavily and I was surprised. It didn't have a really big affect on the handling and the grip level but still there were drops on the visor and you could even smell it. It was quite big. Then it started to get less and it was not a problem anymore. When you come in for your first stop and you know it is drizzling around turn five-six-seven-eight then you just pray for the rain to stop as other people might stay out, one or two laps, and they get a free stop as it starts raining. It was tight. All in all I think it was a difficult race today. As Jenson said you never knew how hard to push, how hard to save your tyres. Everyone was trying to do the same. I think there was a lot to learn today and a lot to take into the next race but for today very, very happy obviously.

Q. The only time you did seem to lose a little bit of time was to Lewis in the second stint. Did you have a problem with the tyres?

SV: Not really. As I said we had a decent gap. He pitted earlier than Nick and earlier than us and I think he went to another set of options after his first stop. As I have just tried to explain it is very powerful and I think we were stopping at the right time in the first stint but tried to push probably a bit longer for the rain whereas he came in and that one lap can make three to four seconds difference. Naturally he caught up and then I was just trying to look after the tyres and look after the gap. He was closing in three-tenths a lap at this stage but we again tried to push that stint as far as we could so I wasn't worried when he was catching up these couple of laps.

Q. Jenson tell us about the start first of all?

JB: Well as we all do I have watched the footage from the last five year here and the inside line has always the best into Turn One so it was my aim to get to the inside as quick as possible. I even had a little go at Lewis down the inside and then I heard an almighty racket down the outside and (turns to Heidfeld) what shall we call you now?

NH: Lotus Renault GP.

JB: ...it was the two Lotus Renault GPs. They had an amazing start, but also the guys did a great job into Turn One. I was in a safe place on the inside but I obviously lost a position to Nick. Then we got underway and I realised I had been very conservative with my front wing angle. I think we are all trying to look after the tyres and I backed out too much front wing and I was really struggling at the front end. Sometimes that can also cause degradation of the rear as you have to put in so much steering lock and then when you get on the power with steering lock it causes oversteer. That was why my first stint was not very good, then every stint from then on I improved. A good day. Good points, an exciting race I am sure to watch. I don't think anyone really knew who was going to finish behind Seb and nice to get 18 points on the board.

Q. And you had the Ferraris behind you at the end of that first stint. How close were they and did that precipitate your pit-stop?

JB: With these tyres as soon as they go, they go. It is what they are supposed to do and it is exactly what they do do. As I said I had the wrong balance on the first stint and I thought that the rears would be okay but they went off a lot earlier than I expected. I didn't expect the Ferraris and the Lotus Renault GP to be as consistent as they were and our degradation was bigger so made a few set-up changes in the stops and improved from there. But a big thanks to the guys. They made some really good calls in the pit-stop. The first race of the season we had a good race and this is again a step forward in terms of performance in qualifying and the race. We've just got to hope it keeps happening as we can't let the Red Bulls have it their own way for much longer. Our aim is to challenge these guys, but it is not easy. They are very, very fast.

Q. How hard did you push to try and jump Lewis, or did that just happen?

JB: He had a long stop, but obviously I also wanted to jump him, because on my third stint of the race, I was behind him, and I felt I could have gone quicker, and I think on the last stint I really felt good on the prime tyre and I could pull out a really big gap on the rest of the field, and try to chase down Seb, but he was just too quick, but I had to have a go.

Q. Nick, quite a lively race. Jenson said it was quite confusing; was it for you?

NH: No, not at all. I think it's easier if you have a good start from the back to see what the guys in front of you are doing. I was kind of lucky that there was enough space on the outside opening up for me just to concentrate on a good braking point. I not only had a good start, but also a good braking into turn one and managed to secure second position.

Q. And how hard was Mark pushing at the end there?

NH: He came close, there were big, big steps. I guess he was on quite fresh tyres but then he must also have started to get some degradation and luckily that was enough to keep him behind me. On top of that, you know that we have KERS and I tried to use it, not for lap time but more for defending, and I don't think he had KERS, did he? Did he have problems towards the end? That's what I was told. That was a big help for us in defending.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado do Sao Paulo) To all drivers, Formula One is a little difficult to understand. In qualifying, some teams are one second slower than in race conditions where everyone is together. Can you comment on that?

SV: Racing has changed. I think the big secret is to be on top of your tyres all the time. If you told everyone that on lap 11 or lap nine for instance, please go as fast as you can, it would probably look a little bit different. On the other hand, you try naturally to go as fast as you can but also at the same time try to look after your tyres, trying to predict what is going to happen. Obviously, you know strategy-wise what is your sort of plan, how many laps you need to achieve etc etc. There are a lot of tactics going on. Sometimes you're holding back, other times you're pushing flat out, so, therefore, I think the gaps between the cars, how quick people go, who's quickest on whatever lap might change quicker than what we are used to seeing. I think that's one of the biggest reasons, from my point of view.

JB: Yes, I totally agree. We're all trying to find a pace that we think is right for consistency but also speed, and it's very tricky to find that balance. I was a little bit surprised, personally, in the first stint, how quick the Lotus Renaults were, and, also, I was surprised by the Ferraris. But I got a bit more of a handle on it in the second and third stints and I think we had pretty good pace.

NH: Adding to what was said, probably some cars are better on long runs than others. That's what will be more crucial this year with the Pirelli tyres, because there's more degradation. It seems we already had a better pace in the race in Melbourne than we had in qualifying. On top of that, I think this weekend was not easy for us because we lost a lot of time on Friday and we definitely didn't have the perfect set-up and there's probably a bit more to gain there in the future.

Q.(Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Jenson, you and Lewis had different strategies with the tyres, he went onto the hard tyres earlier than you. Was there any reason for that?

JB: I think it was the preference of the tyres after qualifying. I think he flat-spotted a tyre in qualifying and that meant that he would run on the prime tyre. I don't know what we feel now, but before the race we felt that the tyres were very, very similar in terms of pace, but also in terms of the degradation, which was very surprising. For me, strangely, I had a much better balance with the prime and I was quicker on the prime compared to everyone. So it worked for me, but maybe that was just the balance I had on the car.

Q. (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Moto und Sport) Sebastian, halfway through the race, your engineer asked you not to use KERS any more. First of all, what was the problem and secondly it seemed from that moment on you were half a second quicker per lap?

SV: That didn't work, then! Yes, correct, at some stage he told me not to use KERS, then we activated it again. I don't know what was the problem. Obviously, something was wrong, otherwise, as I have said many times, it's lap time. Obviously, as I tried to explain before, I think it's very difficult to read the true pace. At some stage, in the third stint, I think, so my last stint on options, I was lapping a second a lap quicker than Lewis for two or three laps, I think. At that stage, I don't think I used KERS, I think that's the time you are talking about. But surely, I can assure you that not running KERS, for us, is a disadvantage. As I tried to explain, we worked very hard and we got it working, but in the race something happened, I don't quite yet know what it was but we used it for the majority (of the race) and I don't think pace has anything to do with it... especially turning it off and then going quicker, has anything to do with that.

Q. (Joris Fioriti – AFP) To all of you: do you think high degradation tyres have really brought more show to F1, because it looked very confusing and somehow messy for the spectators. And secondly, especially to Jenson and Nick, do you think that Sebastian Vettel will be the man to beat this year, to become World Champion?

JB: At this moment in time, yes, is the answer, I concur with you regarding Sebastian being the person to beat. He's got a 24-point lead and that's a lot after two races, but there are still another 17 to go, maybe 18.

SV: You have already calculated that in the car?

JB: I know everything. You should be careful, right! Of course, the Red Bulls' pace is very good. He's won two races out of two and nobody else has been consistent, first off. I think in terms of pace we, the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team are the second best but I think we need to find some improvements. That's in the pipeline. It's exciting for us that we've made some good improvements already and hopefully in China we can make a really good race of it. From what I heard, the race was pretty good. There were people all over the place which is good, isn't it? Was it better or not? I was in the car, I don't know. It is complicated, and I think at this point of the season it's going to be because there's a lot that we're trying to learn ourselves on the circuit. If we had one tyre for the whole race and didn't have pit stops, would it be exciting? I don't know. I think that it's the correct thing to do, to make the tyres that they have and I think Pirelli have done a great job of actually getting tyres that have degradation in the time that they've had to build these tyres. I think that in the time they've had to build these tyres they've done a very good job. I think it made the racing exciting today. For me, I didn't know who was going to finish behind Seb. I did in the end, which is great. I think it's working well and I think that as the season goes on we will realise and understand the tyres a little bit more every race. The races will calm down, but hopefully not too much. Hopefully, they will still be exciting.

SV: Well, regarding the up and down, Jenson described how he struggled on the first stint, he was very happy in the last stint. Within one race, with a different set of tyres, there were some things that you can fine tune in the car. Potentially, that can make a big difference. The fact that if you feel comfortable in one stint compared to the other, it can make a difference in pace. Regarding the show, it's hard for all of us to judge because we are very busy with our own race and looking after our own tyres but I think there are more battles going on, and that's obviously something people want to see. For all us, I think there's a lot to pick up and a lot to learn, because there are so many things going on: more than one stop. So the racing has changed. Obviously, if you look at the race speed, the lap times compared to last year, we are much slower. In qualifying, the difference is not that big, but in the race there's quite a difference. There are some things you lose, there are other things you gain, so it's always give and take.

NH: I think both things are true. It's probably more complicated to understand from the outside, but at the same time the show's better, because for sure there was more overtaking going on. I think it's quite easy to answer that. Regarding Vettel and Red Bull being the team to beat, I think that's also obvious. They've been the quickest for the first two races. I think McLaren have done a very good job, having finished where they have in the first two races, compared to winter testing, but I also like the fact that I'm asked, being a Lotus Renault driver, if it's the team to beat. Unfortunately, at the moment, I think we are a bit too far behind. On the other hand, we made some good progress, we finished two races on the podium, so we hope to keep the momentum going.

Q. (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, last year in the first two races you had a technical problem in Bahrain and you gave away a win. In Australia you had a problem with the front brakes. Now you have won two races out of two; how different is your approach to these two races?

SV: No difference. Obviously, what happened in Australia, what happened here today was good but that's two out of 19. I can't calculate as quick as Jenson, but I will take it a bit easier. He was obviously good at maths. Shame he became a racing driver then! Obviously, there's a long, long way to go. I don't have to tell you, from the experience that I have: ask Jenson, two years ago, how important it is to have a good start to the season. Ask Michael. I think he had a couple of good starts to the season. Every point you can take on board is important and how important, we've seen the last couple of years where the championship has been decided by not much, only a few points, so every point you can take, the better it is. For what we did in Australia, and what we did here, we can be very proud. We have worked very hard and we have a very strong package, but that's it. Tomorrow, we focus on the next race. I'm sure the boys are very happy but they are already packing up and getting ready for the next one so step by step: there's a long long way to go, a lot of things can change. We've seen within 10 days how the pace can vary. It was much tighter here than in Australia. Some people were already talking of brutal dominance or whatever. I tried not to read anything and we came here and it was completely different. That's just two races in. I don't think I need to explain how many things can change. Look at last year. I think Fernando is a very good example. People wrote him out of the championship, he came back, then they wrote him off again, he came back and he was the favourite going into the last race. It will be very similar this year, I guess. It's all about being consistent and getting your stuff together and making sure you use everything you have.

Q. (Sarah Holt – BBC Sport) Jenson, Sebastian has spoken about the season ahead. How important was it for you to kick start your championship push here and be the man chasing Sebastian?

JB: Yes, it was very important. The first race didn't really go my way. It was a frustrating race and I made a mistake and got a drive-through for it and had to find my way back through. So, it was just one of those races really. But the pace of the car was very good, I was happy with the performance and in the race also. So, I came here looking for a good result and until the last lap I was still trying to fight for the victory. I know it was a long shot but you've got to give it a go. I'm happy to take away 18 points. It gives me confidence not just to come away with second place, but the feeling of the car is good. We need to improve, but the feeling of the car is good and that's important to me. We've only got a few days before the next race, but we're doing everything we can to make the small improvements and the details that we can and hopefully have a better race in China.[/spoiler]

LUKIE · April 11, 2011

So Hamilton breaks the rules, and he gets given a penalty, and everyone bitches that it is people favouring Ferrari, even though Alonso received a penalty for causing a collision, possibly due to Hamilton breaking the rules?

WHERE IS THE LOGIC IN YOU PEOPLE?

Hornswoggle4PM · April 12, 2011

They're British. <_<

That's the only reason I can think of anyway.

Summers · April 12, 2011

Shamilton's a fucking twat.

Lineker · April 13, 2011

Formula 1's new look for 2011 - with the introduction of moveable rear wings, the return to KERS and the switch to Pirelli – has helped make the spectacle much better, claim leading figures from within the sport.

With overtaking now easier for drivers, and Pirelli's aggressive rubber producing multi-stop races, the evidence from the first two events of the year suggests more exciting racing.

And although there have been some suggestions that the dramatically increased number of stops makes the races more complicated to follow, those within the sport think that the entertainment level has been ramped up in 2011.

Renault team principal Eric Boullier told AUTOSPORT: "I think it is good. I think if you are a proper racer, and I do consider I am one, I like it when you have both cars reaching the limit, touching a little even the sidepods.

"The DRS was a cost-effective thing to put in place and on some layouts it will not work, like Australia, but when you have a straight long enough like Malaysia or China it will work and it is good."

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said: "I suspect when you look back at Malaysia, it wasn't a bad race and I think the tyre situation and cars on the circuit preserving tyres in different stages of tyre degradation adds to the spectacle.

"Pirelli has had to come into the sport with very little testing, and we have to congratulate them on what they have done. Individual drivers can complain about individual tyre sets but the fact is, looking at the sport, we have had tyres that are safe and produced a bit of a challenge to the teams and are better for the spectacle."

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner reckons the new rules were making life much harder for the teams – thanks to the strategy permutations – and that opened up areas of fresh interest for fans.

"It is certainly complicated on the pit wall," he said. "It would be an air traffic controller's nightmare if you were tuned into the strategy channel - because you are trying to look at where you are going to emerge, what the degradation is, what tyre you should be using with two cars. The work rate is colossal.

"It does add an exciting dimension to the race, and I think it added another element to the race."

When asked if he felt the races were now too complicated to follow, he said: "I am not the right person to comment on that because you become so immersed in your own race that you do not look at the race as a whole.

"I would have to rewatch the race to see how it looked, but you got people racing each other. You have Alonso and Hamilton racing wheel to wheel, you have Mark managing to have a bad first lap and coming back through. So that has to be a positive for F1 in what could have otherwise been quite a static race.

"I think it is positive and I think it will take a few races for a pattern to emerge."

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali added: "From the spectacular point of view, people enjoy seeing the wing opening/closing and the drivers getting closer and then fighting. It is a fact and we have to live with it.

"But for sure it is not easy for the public to understand what is going on because it is also difficult for the team, but that is the way it is. I think it is part of the game of this year, we need to consider that and we don't have to take an excuse from this point."

Fernando Alonso said the races were also more exciting from the driving point of view – and that the new-look F1 meant that drivers had to push all the time in the races.

"In one part of the race I was second, or third – I overtook Jenson, and then in a different part of the race Jenson was even in front of Lewis, and I was fighting Webber – who was doing four stops.

"Webber was doing four stops, so it is not so clear or so easy to know what is happening. You lose visual contact with them, and you don't know any more which strategy they are doing.

"So you try to do your own race, knowing sometimes you are second or third, but it doesn't mean you are second or third in the real race because, if you are on a different strategy in the last stint, you can find yourself fifth or sixth.

"So you need to keep pushing, and you need to keep saving the tyres as well. The race is very long. Last year after the first pit stop the race was more or less over, this year you don't know anything until the last four or five laps and that is interesting."

Team Lotus is set to become the latest outfit to introduce a 2011-style blown diffuser, with the team planning to have it ready in time for the Spanish Grand Prix.

With a number of outfits working hard on implementing their own version of the concept pioneered by Red Bull Racing, Team Lotus has high hopes that the performance boost it should get from the update will lift it firmly into the midfield battle.

Heikki Kovalainen told AUTOSPORT: "We know there are big chunks of performance potentially coming if we nail it. We are working on it, and hopefully we will get it for Spain.

"The feeling is that there should be some good numbers coming from there, so I look forward to that. Hopefully we can unlock it and get it working properly."

Kovalainen sees no reason why Team Lotus cannot make big progress before then too, as he feels the team still has good performance to come for when it finally gets on top of the power-steering issues that have hampered it in the first two races of the season.

"In Malaysia we delivered exactly what we were hoping for, and if you look at the midfield most teams have been stuck there," he said.

"After that is the tough one, to then break into top ten. That is when it will get tricky for us as well and we still need to grow. We need better facilities; we need more people in the team. We still need to grow and we are still a young team.

"But I think to join the group and battle inside the group, we are almost there. We just need some decent upgrades, bigger than the opponents hopefully, and also sort out the reliability issues - we still have problems with the power steering as well – and it is affecting us even a little bit when it is performing well.

"So when you put all those fixes in place, then I think we can genuinely start racing the guys ahead of us, which will be fantastic."

Formula 1's ruling body, the FIA, has confirmed the area in which drivers will be able to use their moveable rear wings during the Chinese Grand Prix.

The DRS (Drag Reduction System) will be allowed on the back straight of the Shanghai circuit, with the activation zone located before the halfway point of the straight, after Turn 13.

The zone is the only place on the track where drivers will be able to use their moveable wing during the race.

Lineker · April 15, 2011

Alonso: Vettel "untouchable":

Fernando Alonso says world champion and championship leader Sebastian Vettel is currently out of reach given his current form.

Red Bull driver Vettel has enjoyed a perfect start to the season, with two poles and two wins in as many races so far.

Alonso managed a fourth place in the Australian Grand Prix and a sixth in Malaysia last weekend.

The Spaniard admitted he was upbeat about the pace of his Ferrari in race trim in Sepang, but he conceded that Vettel is out of reach at the moment.

"As we had already seen in Australia, once again in Malaysia, our race pace was much better than that in qualifying," said Alonso on Ferrari's website.

"In Sepang, both Felipe and I were running at a pace good enough to get to the podium and that was an important indication, even if we did not end up getting all we could have done.

"Clearly, I would like to always be fighting for the win but, at the moment, one car, Vettel's Red Bull, seems to be out of reach."

Alonso, who reckoned he should have finished in second place in Malaysia, said he wanted to move on from the Sepang event, although he admitted finishing on the podium would have been good for the morale of the team following a difficult start to the year.

"I was disappointed not to get to the podium in Malaysia, as it was within my reach and it would have been a great result. It would also have been useful in terms of being a nice morale booster," he said.

"Unfortunately, things did not work out the way we wanted and we paid a very heavy price for the failure on the system that runs the moveable rear wing.

"I know that the engineers, with whom I've been in touch a lot over these past days, have discovered the problem and fixed it. If the system had worked, I could comfortably have got past Hamilton on the pit straight and I would not have found myself having to fight him wheel to wheel and taking risks.

"What happened is part of racing and you have to accept it: I was quicker than him and so I had to try and pass, otherwise I would have been caught by those behind us. As for the penalty I was given, I already said on Sunday night in Sepang, I don't want to talk about it because it changes nothing."

Ferrari will have a few aero updates in Shanghai this weekend, including a new front wing, but Alonso suggested he is still keeping his expectations in check.

"Our aim in this grand prix will be similar to the one in Malaysia, which means to make the best of qualifying and try to exploit any opportunity that comes our way during the race," he said.

Vitaly Petrov will revert to the chassis he used in the Australian Grand Prix after his current one was damaged in Malaysia. Lots of critism at Pirelli regarding the 'marbling' of the tyres, although they said that this is the expectect consequence of less durable tyres as they were asked for - but they'll work on it anyway. Sergio Perez was apparently very lucky to escape injury in the incident which caused his retirement from the race.

Pirelli has defended its approach to racing following concerns about the amount of tyre marbles seen in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso admitted the marbles were a "worry", while Renault's Vitaly Petrov said he went off in Sepang because of marbles on the racing line.

Pirelli's Paul Hembery said the marbles are a natural consequence of its decision to provide tyres that degrade to improve the show.

He said, however, that his company will try to reduce the amount of marbles generated, but not by changing its approach.

"Once all the different strategies had played out, the last 10 laps in Sepang were absolutely thrilling - but you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs, or, in the case of Malaysia, rubber," said Hembery.

"The rubber 'marbles' on the track are a natural consequence of the increased degradation that has led to more exciting races: all that rubber has to go somewhere, just as it has always done in the past.

"Having said that, we're here to serve the teams' best interests and we're looking at ways of reducing some of the deposits in the future. But that's not going to change our fundamental philosophy: we want to give racing back to the racers."

Webber 'not panicking', but snaps at reporter:

Mark Webber says he is not panicking about his slow start to the season in comparison to his Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

World champion Vettel made a clean sweep of Australia and Malaysia, winning both races from pole position. In contrast Webber finished a distant fifth in his home race and had to fight back to fourth in Sepang after his KERS failed to operate from the start of the race. Thanks to those two victories, Vettel already has a 28-point cushion over the 34-year-old.

Speaking in China ahead of this weekend's grand prix though, Webber said that he was pleased with the pace he showed in Malaysia and was bullish that things should return to normal, with him being more closely-matched with Vettel, very soon.

"I have been around long enough to understand that I have had some very good seasons in the last few years, and people always make the natural comparison between your team-mates and all that sort of stuff," he explained during his press briefing, which AUTOSPORT was present at. "Obviously Seb is driving really, really well, and he is on top of a lot of things at the moment.

"But for me the first race wasn't great, and Malaysia was a much, much more positive weekend. Seb was coming to my pace at the end, he did a great job in Q3 as we've often seen from him. He is very strong in qualifying and the race was disappointing that I didn't have a chance to look at the front of the grand prix. So it could be a lot worse than it is at the moment.

"I'm still performing pretty well I believe and also we are learning a lot still about the category. As a driver you have still to adapt to different things and learn how you get more out of things and that's what I've got to do.

"Every track throws up different challenges, so yeah I am fine. I think if I was much younger I would be panicking but I'm not panicking at all, I've been around the block too many times."

Webber reacted angrily to a reporter who compared his situation to that of Eddie Irvine's alongside Michael Schumacher during their Ferrari heyday, when the Ulsterman compared being beaten five times in succession by the German to being hit over the head with a baseball bat.

"Absolutely f****** ludicrous question mate!" Webber said. "You've known me long enough, you've known me long enough. Five wins in a row? Yeah but that doesn't mean... he's not just beaten me. He's beaten everyone. So no one will turn up then! We may as well all stay at home.

"That's what a competitor does [come back fighting]," he added. "Nothing lasts forever. That's the way it goes. Like I said he is doing a good job and Malaysia was close between us. Tough first lap [for me], but that's what happens. Come here, see how we go... I think... I'll stop there."

Indian Grand Prix officials are adamant the inaugural race will go ahead without problems when it makes its debut on the calendar later this year.

"They are very keen to get it finished in the summer, they try to get it before the monsoon starts, but they will be ready in time," Walter Kafitz, a consultant to the circuit, told AUTOSPORT.

"I wasn't in Korea, I just have heard it, but I am sure these problems I have heard (about) won't occur."

The Korean Grand Prix faced months of uncertainty before the inaugural race took place, with the track still being worked on during the GP weekend.

India is scheduled to host its first grand prix on 30 October, with the circuit having undergone an FIA inspection in February.

Indian GP chief executive Sameer Gaur said not even the poor weather would not affect the construction of the circuit.

"Even if it rains tomorrow, no problem. I'm already inside the building, the civil work is done, and we are absolutely confident and sure that we will not embarrass our country this year."

Gaur is also convinced that the event will be a huge success for the country.

"It's India, it's a continent. We won the Cricket World Cup in 1983. Before that India was not known in cricket. India was losing in cricket, but that was a game changer. And, since then, India has become a hub of cricket.

"What I feel is that October 2011 will be a game changer for India. Motorsport in India will become very big because there are lots of motorsport lovers all across India in different states like Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai.

"Somebody had to take the call. We got the opportunity three years back when we signed this contract with Mr E and the FOA. And now this opportunity has come. At least the first race, the second race there will be so much hype, and the hype and the marketing will start in a month's time. I think we should be okay with the crowd, there's a lot of buzz."

Thursday's press conference:

DRIVERS - Rubens BARRICHELLO (Williams), Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren), Vitantonio LIUZZI (HRT), Michael SCHUMACHER (Mercedes), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull),

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Tonio, a really difficult start to the season. How has it been?

Vitantonio LIUZZI: You said the right word, difficult, really difficult, but we knew that from the beginning. Everything started really late. We are building the new car for this year so we knew we would not have an easy start. We went to Australia with not one kilometre in the new car and basically the first kilometre was done in qualifying so I think the result was not too bad. A step forward from last year. We understood just a bit, doing seven laps in Australia but I think we went to Malaysia with more understanding about the new car. We showed a much stronger result. For sure we have to still work hard and the team is pushing a lot. Already here we have some upgrades. We will have some more for Turkey so everything will be better. The team starts to work much more professionally so everything is going in the right direction.

Q. Do you think you can get on terms with the other teams that were new last year?

VL: I think we will be close in this race. We will close the gap even more in the next few races. The car and the team are growing. The developments should be coming soon so it will depend also how other teams will react in these next few races. Virgin is the closest team with whom we have a gap who we could fight. Lotus made a big step forward but our intention is to grow more and more this year and to put the right basis for a proper 2012.

Q. Is the 107 per cent rule something that you think you can get through every single time?

VL: I think it shouldn't be a problem anymore. In Australia it was a problem as we did not have a kilometre in the car so we did not know what to expect. In Malaysia we were well under the 107 per cent and Malaysia is maybe the toughest circuit for that kind of problems. We are planning to improve the car soon and every race so we hope that we don't face any more that issue as we want to fight closer and closer with our competitors and be ahead of them soon.

Q. Lewis, interesting little point you made in your preview - whether you remember it or not - about Jim Clark and the fact that you have become the driver who has driven for one team the longest in the history of Formula One racing. Just tell us about that.

Lewis HAMILTON: I think this is my fifth year with my team, but we have had more races probably in this decade than probably what they had back in Jim Clark's day so maybe I have just done more races. I don't know if it is actually more years or not. I think it feels pretty good to know that I have been consistent and that I have had a good track record with a great team and that it is going to continue.

Q. And loyalty is something you place quite highly I think?

LH: Yeah, I think my family, particularly my Dad, was one to really point out that was a very important value that I should grow up with. From a very early age I felt that was something quite important. Of course, loyalty is an important key to relationships in life but they are not the deciding factor. But you have got to try and keep good relationships with people as long as you can.

Q. You have got some updates that you are using I think tomorrow that you tried in Malaysia. What are you expecting from those?

LH: I have no expectations going into tomorrow. I think the car, the temperatures are better here, so the car I am sure will be better this weekend than it was last weekend. With the upgrades, they were upgrades that came to the last race but didn't particularly work and so it is just an attempt to try and get them to work as there is a decent amount of potential. But whether or not we will get it done and we make it work who knows - but it will be something we will continue to work on.

Q. Both you and Jenson Button were faster than Red Bull at times during the last grand prix. Can you carry that over? Can you be faster than them consistently? Obviously, it all depends on if they take a jump ahead as well.

LH: I think a lot of factors come into it. My guess is in the last race they had to probably cool their car a lot more so they probably lost a bit of time there. Whether or not they had as good a KERS or as much KERS as us I don't really know. It was close there but I am sure that they will be back on top form this weekend and have even more pace than they did in the last race. Whether or not we will be as close as we were in the last race we will find out here. Race pace tends to be quite similar to theirs, it is just generally in qualifying they seem to have an advantage.

Q. Rubens, a disappointing start to the season for you. Does it have an affect on a driver of your experience?

Rubens BARRICHELLO: I think it would have an affect on a driver with any experience, really. It is not the dream start to the year we wished we would have had. Having said that all the time you are working hard and making the car better. By a mistake I put myself out of contention in Australia in qualifying and the race was going good until the problem again. In Malaysia it was just not there. The car was not competitive and we were struggling. I am sure it is going to be a lot better here. We have new parts, we have new things and we are hoping for a much, much brighter weekend.

Q. Where do you see yourselves in the hierarchy? What sort of level?

RB: In which way?

Q. In terms of qualifying as you have not actually finished a race?

RB: I think we would have qualified top 10 in the first race. The second race we were 15th and it was the best we could have achieved. Here I don't know. We just need to see how the car will develop. Without any changes I guess we can be a top 12. With the changes I hope we can be top six.

Q. You were the first winner of the Chinese Grand Prix. What do you remember of that, particularly what happened on the podium?

RB: Ha, ha. I remember having a shower with Mr (Luca di) Montezemolo. It was a nice champagne shower. It was a good event. I remember that year the tyres were having some problems on the front, but as soon as you went through the phase of that you were able to push really hard. That is what we had the whole weekend and I was able to keep it consistent and to win the race – which was great.

Q. Sebastian, pole here for the last two years. You won in 2009. Back-to-back race wins, do you feel yourself that you're on a major roll at the moment?

Sebastian VETTEL: I don't know. Obviously you feel good after the races we have so far, especially last weekend. We try to make this feeling last but we come here and we have to refocus. It is pretty much the same approach that we have had in every other race as well. It will be a tough weekend. We have seen the last two events here that the weather can play a very important role so we will see what happens.

Q. In Malaysia, Christian Horner said that the major focus was mainly on tyres. Is that going to continue?

SV: I guess yes. I think it will be the same situation here. How the tyres behave we will find out probably tomorrow. Melbourne and Malaysia was quite different. It could be that we will have a similar situation here as in Malaysia, but we don't know, we have to confirm. It is a different track again. Outside conditions are different, it is quite a bit cooler here, less humid, so as I said I guess tyres will be one of the most important. They always have been and this year with the new tyres we have and the amount of stops we have to face on Sunday they will be important and I guess we will find out a lot more tomorrow.

Q. How much do you see McLaren and Ferrari as rivals?

SV: Pretty much and also Mercedes. We have had only two races this year and we have been very fortunate to run at the front. McLaren was pushing very hard. They made a very strong impression already in Melbourne, also considering where they have been at the tests where it was difficult to read the true pace. Ferrari were very, very quick at the testing as well as Mercedes, especially at the end. We are just two races in and we have seen from last year how many things can change in only a couple of races. Some tracks maybe suit your car more than others so we will have to see. In the end we don't care so much about the rest, we care about ourselves and we try to do the best job we can and hopefully that ensures we have a good chance to run at the front again.

Q. Michael, a former winner here as well. You came from sixth on the grid, which is the lowest anyone has come from to win here. That was the last podium you had. It has been a disappointing start to the season I am sure you will agree even though you got the first points in Malaysia?

Michael SCHUMACHER: Yep, I probably have to agree on this.

Q. How disappointing?

MS: Well it is natural or obvious that we had other expectations. We have spoken about the reasons why a certain performance was not able to be delivered. That is where we are but in Formula One it is not the first time it has happened to me that things do not go to expectations. It is what it is and the only way to go forward is to work off your problems and that is what we are about to do right now.

Q. It was said there was going to be a big post-mortem, a big examination after Malaysia. Have you had that and what has that revealed? Has it been positive?

MS: Well we learned more and more about the car. Naturally timing after Malaysia to China there is a very short amount of time available and it is not the case that we have major upgrades for this event. We will have for other events. It is more actually to understand the car and pull out the true and complete potential. There is more potential than we have been able to show, but we haven't yet found the tweak to make use of it.

Q. Is there one area that you are particularly concentrating on? Is it aerodynamics? Is it tyres? It is always tyres I guess.

MS: You know, the secret of Formula One is not one particular area. It is always paying attention to all kinds of details. There are less important areas, absolutely, but we kind of try to figure out all the little bits and pieces and get them working.

Q. That is still on-going?

MS: It is an on-gong process I am afraid. But when the tough get going the going gets tough, sorry when the tough get going...

Q. I think we know what you mean.

MS: Yes exactly, you know what I want to say.

Q. Good try though.

MS: When the going gets tough the tough get going. I got it right now.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Sarah Holt – BBC Sport) Lewis, you came away from Malaysia having lost a place, penalised after the race. What was your reaction to that? Did you think the penalty was fair?

LH: It didn't really make much difference. I was seventh; so seventh or eighth, it's pretty crap either way. That's racing. I think it was fair.

Q. (Sarah Holt – BBC Sport) Why did you think it was fair? Did you feel that you had been weaving on the track or defending?

LH: Well, the previous year, obviously I had some big weaves on the straight which everyone disagreed with, which was fine. They said that they would be stricter on that this year. Looking back at it, I didn't weave even half as much as I did in the previous time, and I didn't put anyone in danger – but the rules state that you can only move once, to the better position. I think the confusing part was really whether I was defending a place or trying to lose the tow. But at the end of the day I got 20s. It was one place so I feel fortunate that it wasn't any more than that and I will just try to avoid doing that in the future, so no one can complain.

Q. (Sarah Holt – BBC Sport) And is there any incentive to use it this weekend to get back on track?

LH: I don't use that, I use the difficult race that we had. I definitely want to bounce back from that because we really had the opportunity to finish second quite easily and to end up eighth after starting second on the grid is not the kind of performance that we want to have in the future. I feel positive about this weekend. It's in the past. It's very early stages in the championship. I actually look at it as a blessing because there have been many races where you have started in nice positions and you don't get any points at all. I've still got a couple of points and who knows whether they will be quite valuable points in the future?

Q. (Xu Zuji - West China Daily) First question for Sebastian: you know you already have two pole positions here in China, but last year you were sixth in the race. How about this year? A third pole position and winner? Are you confident?

SV: It's always a long weekend. Obviously you work both Friday and Saturday to prepare the cars as much as you can and ideally on Saturday afternoon you get the best position on the grid that you can get for the race. So the target, for sure, is to have a good qualifying and then ultimately have a good race because that's where you can score points. So looking back at last year's race, obviously we were not strong enough, we were struggling a little bit with the conditions but still got some points. For this year, every year is different, so we will see what we can do – but surely, as I tried to say earlier, we will try to push as hard as we can and try to get the maximum out of the car one more time, and ideally have a good result. Of course, I wouldn't mind if everything goes well and we can get another pole position or another victory.

Q. (Xu Zuji - West China City Daily) Do you know the weather forecast? It says there will be rain.

SV: OK, you are local so you probably know better than us. We will see. We also have some forecasts and yeah, there's also some rain. We will see when and how much. That's always the same question.

Q. (Xu Zuji - West China City Daily) Do you think yourself unstoppable this year?

SV: We've obviously had two good races but we come here and we start again. That's the name of the game at every event, every race so surely we try to keep it going. We saw at the last race that it's getting very tight and you can take nothing for granted. Of course, the day will come when we might finish second, fifth, tenth, whatsoever but that's life. That's Formula One.

Q. (Joris Fioriti – Agence France Presse) To Sebastian and Lewis. Sebastian, you said after the Malaysia race that the fact that Nick Heidfeld came up to second after the start was a good thing for you because he held back the others and helped you to get a small gap. Do you think that without him, Lewis could have threatened you a lot? And Lewis, did you think that if you had the same race pace as Red Bull that you could have fought for victory?

SV: As I said in Malaysia, obviously Nick had a phenomenal start. Both Renaults – both Lotus Renaults – had a good start and of course it was a comfortable situation for me because I think Lewis would probably have had a bit stronger pace than Nick at the time but nevertheless, I think Nick had a strong pace throughout the whole race, otherwise you are not able to finish on the podium. It was not a bad race at all for them but as I said, it was a bit of a luxury situation because I could pull away and didn't have that much pressure from behind at that stage, but for all the other stints, I don't think we had Nick behind us, we had Lewis or Jenson behind us and we were able to react. Of course it was important but if, if, if... I cannot answer these kind of questions.

LH: I think I could have competed for the win. Obviously we started second and for whatever reason I lost position at the beginning and didn't really see Heidfeld pop down the outside so I was caught napping a little bit but I had Jenson on the inside, so I was more focusing on him, obviously not touching Sebastian. I got held up for quite a few laps and once I got past, I think I was exchanging similar lap times to Sebastian. I think I would have probably been able to hold onto him if not, but it's all if and when. But in the second stint, I think I was catching him after the pit stop, once I jumped Heidfeld, so I think it could have been close had we not… but the rest of the race was a disaster so it doesn't really matter.

Q. (Fulvio Solms – Corriere dello Sport) Question to you all: Pirelli is thinking of a new rule for the future. It would give you the four compounds to each team at every race, with complete freedom to use them. What do you think about that? What's your opinion about this possible new rule? Four compounds at every race and you can chose every time which to use.

MS: Honestly, we are not aware of this idea and I'm not sure it makes sense to discuss rumours right now, so….

SV: It's the first time I heard of this.

MS: We're all hearing about this for the first time, right now. We weren't aware of this. I don't like to talk about rumours. If it's the case, then maybe we can talk about it.

Q. (Gary Meenaghan – The National) It's been confirmed that the Yas Marina organisers are changing the track slightly for this year's race and they're going to widen the turns at turn five and six, which is the one onto the first straight and then eight and nine which are the turns before the second straight. I was just wondering if you think these changes are the kind of changes that Formula One needs to be making to improve overtaking and if you think that it's important to take driver criticism and adapt.

MS: We saw last year in the last race with Fernando [Alonso] and Vitaly [Petrov] – that's the reason why it comes into discussion and as much as the teams in Formula One have worked on the cars, there was probably a need to have circuits in general – I'm not just saying Abu Dhabi – but in general to make revisions in order to allow overtaking. There are some interesting views and we're very happy to hear that Abu Dhabi, after building a very good track is open to make further changes in order to see if we can find some guidelines for the future that may improve the overtaking situation. So, I think it's a good step in the right direction, to see what will be done, what effect it will have. Nevertheless, if you look at this year's competition in general, it does offer a lot more overtaking possibilities, and I think that in that respect, in terms of spectacle and interest in the sport has risen extremely and it's very pleasing to see what happened in the first two races this year.

Q. (Gary Meenaghan – The National) Is it something that the GPDA have got involved with at all?

SV: Rubens is a director.

RB: The GPDA gets together to say what we think and we forward the issues to the FIA. Basically, I think the last few years' - I wouldn't say criticism - or maybe constructive criticism where we think that this may be done or that, the GPDA is more in favour in helping safety rather than anything else, because with the new rules for the rear wing, you could argue that with the long straights in Abu Dhabi there is no need for change, because you're going to have a lot of overtaking anyway, but having said that, it was fair to see that last year there were not enough opportunities just if you have a difference in speed greater than five kilometres an hour or so. It's always good if they have the possibilities financially to change the track and maybe to improve that. It's just a great thing. Of course drivers will go there and some will say it's better and some will say it's worse but as long as it improves the show it's the way forward.

Q. (Joris Fioriti – Agence France Presse) We as journalists talked a lot about rubber bullets and marbles over the last few days. Do you think it's a very important issue that you are put in danger or is it something that doesn't really mean anything?

LH: I think it's normal. In the past we had a lot of marbles in places like Montreal and of course you don't have any run-off area, so it's reasonably dangerous in some places there but now we have it more at other circuits – most of the circuits – but I don't think it's bad. I've tried overtaking a little bit. These tyres, OK, when you do go onto the marbles, you lose a bit of grip and it's not that easy to clean them up as perhaps it was in the past but that's racing. I don't see any danger whatsoever.

SV: The amount of marbles or pick-up we have next to the racing line is more than what we are used to simply because we are on different tyres. We have seen this throughout testing and now in the first couple of races we have double the amount of cars on the track in the race. There are a lot of marbles but I think Pirelli is aware of that and should it become a problem I think they can get on top of it and change it. There's nothing we have to fear. I think the amount you can see on television, as well, at the beginning compared to the end, I think the amount of marbles and pick-up is huge but as I said, I don't think we have anything to fear.

Q. (Sarah Holt – BBC Sport) Hello again, Seb, what are your plans for KERS this weekend? Are Red Bull going to try and run it again tomorrow and get it working properly on this circuit, or are you happy that you're fast enough to run without it?

SV: No, I think I said many times that KERS is an advantage this year so to run KERS will actually help you if you're looking for lap time and performance, because compared to two years ago, you obviously don't have any flexibility or any advantage to get by moving the weight distribution and so on. Your hands are tied this year so it makes sense to run KERS and it's our target obviously. We were not proud not to have it in Australia. We were, for the majority of the weekend, able to run it in Malaysia and within that short amount of time I think we made a big step. Obviously now we've only had a couple of days but the guys again have been pushing very hard and I'm confident we will have it in the car, that's for sure and I'm confident that it will work all weekend this weekend. Yes, we will be using it tomorrow –and Saturday and Sunday, I hope.

Watching FP1 now, will put up time sheets in the morning.

Katsuya · April 15, 2011

Hispania comfortably beat Virgin in FP2 and were within three seconds of the first of the non-new teams. Relatively speaking, that's awesome.

Lineker · April 15, 2011

Sebastian Vettel continued his strong start to the season by topping the times in the opening practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix.

The championship leader and the winner of the first two races of the season, was the only man to lap the Shanghai circuit in less than 99 seconds, going fastest with a 1m38.739s.

Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber completed a solid start to the weekend for the team, the Australian finishing in second, albeit over half a second behind Vettel.

The McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were third and fourth, but a massive two seconds behind the world champion.

Button had KERS issues during the session, the Briton's engineer reporting the system was overheating about the one-hour mark.

Nick Heidfeld completed the top five ahead of Felipe Massa in the fastest of the Ferraris.

Heidfeld, however, endured a disappointing opening session, the German crashing his Renault at Turn 10 with less than 30 minutes remaining after losing control of his car when bouncing off the kerbs. The car suffered damaged to the front and Heidfeld was unable to continue after just five laps.

Ferrari was carrying out a set of aerodynamic tests, with Fernando Alonso, who completed his first timed lap with less than 20 minutes to go, carrying out constant velocity runs and the Italian cars carrying 'flo-viz' paint on their front wings.

The Spanish driver was down in 12th.

The first session of the weekend, on a circuit covered by smog, had the usual slow start, with most drivers taking to the track to complete installation laps only.

Narain Karthikeyan was the first man to set a time, the Hispania driver completing the first full lap some 20 minutes into the session. He was quickly outpaced by Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi, the Japanese going three seconds quicker in his first attempt.

McLaren's drivers Button and Hamilton were next to move to the top of the times, with the latter being the first man to lap in the 1m41s bracket. His team-mate was quick to better that and take the place with a lap of 1m41.092s.

Hamilton moved into the 1m40s after that, but it was Webber who went quickest just moments later, the Australian's 1m40.692s lap enough to outpace his rival by two tenths. He then made a further improvement, by over sixth tenths of a second, to leave himself on the verge of the 1m39s.

Vettel shot to the top of times after some 45 minutes, the world champion moving breaking the 100-second barrier with a 1m39.540s.

With 35 minutes left, the Red Bull driver made a massive improvement, shedding eight tenths from his best time. Webber closed the gap a few minutes later, but still over half a second of Vettel's pace.

Luiz Razia was back at the wheel of the Lotus car, replacing Italian Jarno Trulli for the opening session of the weekend. The Brazilian, however, did not enjoy a trouble-free run, damaging his car's front wing and right front tyre at the 40-minute mark, leaving Trulli unimpressed, the Italian gesticulating on television after the incident.

Force India's Paul di Resta was also in trouble when he spun his car with some 25 minutes left. Fortunately for him, he didn't hit anything and managed to continue.

Another man to have a low-key start to the weekend was Timo Glock, was spent the majority of the session in his Virgin garage, setting a time for the first time with less than 10 minutes left.

Rookie Pastor Maldonado finished his day some 12 minutes ahead of time after spinning his Williams at Turn 5, his car stopping on top of the kerbs.

Tonio Liuzzi also stopped on track at the end of the session with some sort of mechanical problem in his Hispania car.
FP1


Pos  Driver                Team                   Time                Laps

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m38.739s		23

 2.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m39.354s   + 0.615   27

 3.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m40.845s   + 2.106   21

 4.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m40.940s   + 2.201   22

 5.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault                1m40.987s   + 2.248   5

 6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m41.046s   + 2.307   25

 7.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m41.189s   + 2.450   20

 8.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth      1m41.222s   + 2.483   20

 9.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                1m41.231s   + 2.492   16

10.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.328s   + 2.589   21

11.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m41.361s   + 2.622   23

12.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m41.434s   + 2.695   15

13.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m41.494s   + 2.755   20

14.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault          1m41.579s   + 2.840   13

15.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m41.610s   + 2.871   18

16.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.752s   + 3.013   20

17.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1m41.939s   + 3.200   25

18.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m42.301s   + 3.562   23

19.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m43.792s   + 5.053   20

20.  Jerome D-Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth        1m44.089s   + 5.350   20

21.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth           1m44.359s   + 5.620   18

22.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth        1m44.438s   + 5.699   11

23.  Luiz Razia            Lotus-Renault          1m44.542s   + 5.803    9

24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           1m45.019s   + 6.280   23


All Timing Unofficial[/code]




Sebastian Vettel went fastest in the second practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix, the Red Bull driver leaving little doubt over his status as favourite for victory in Shanghai.



Vettel, who was also quickest in the morning, posted a best time of 1m37.688s, but this time he was followed closely by the McLarens of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, who were less than three tenths behind the world champion.



Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher showed promising form in the Mercedes, the Germans winding up fourth and fifth - less than half a second off the pace.



Felipe Massa was again the fastest Ferrari driver with the sixth quickest time.



Team-mate Fernando Alonso finished in 14th position having been unable to do much running due to a hydraulic problem in his Ferrari. The Spaniard managed to return to action late in the session, completing a run with soft tyres but without using his DRS.



Hamilton and Button showed they had pace in store after their discreet showing in FP1, both going quicker right at the start of the second session. They exchanged positions a few times before Button moved to the top with a 1m39.431s just 10 minutes into the session.



Ten minutes later it was Rosberg moving to the top of the times, becoming the second man alongside Vettel to lap in the 1m38s. Williams's Pastor Maldonado was also among the frontrunners at the start of the session after deciding to use the softer tyre compound, the Venezuelan the first man to do so.



Massa went quickest around the 30-minute mark also using soft tyres, the Brazilian posting the best time of the weekend until that moment - 1m38.570s.



Rosberg regained the top spot minutes later with his maiden run with the soft tyres, the Mercedes driver the first man to move into the 1m37s.



Team-mate Schumacher jumped to second place - also with a run on softs - when nearing the one-hour mark, the seven-time champion less than two tenths behind Rosberg.



A couple of minutes later, Hamilton retook first place, with Button going second as the McLaren duo tried the soft tyres for the first time. The former reported after his flying lap that his tyres were "finished".



McLaren's domination did not last long however, with Vettel flying to the top spot with a 1m37.688s just a moment later.



Nick Heidfeld had another difficult session following his crash in the morning, the German making contact with the barrier again after going off at Turn 12.



He managed to keep the engine going and returned to the track with no front wing, but was forced to stop before reaching the pits. He was later pushed back into the pits by his mechanics and the German returned to action for the last 25 minutes.



Force India's Paul di Resta also had a difficult afternoon, the Briton's car affected by a fuel-pressure problem that meant he was unable to complete any running.



HRT's Tonio Liuzzi completed just one timed lap after succumbing to a car problem in the first session. He managed to join the track at the very end, but still outpaced the Virgin cars.



Virgin driver Timo Glock was hit by problems again, and although he managed more running than in the morning, the German still lost valuable time in the pits and finished his session early.





[code]FP2


Pos  Driver                Team                   Time                Laps

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m37.688s            34

 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m37.854s  +	0.166  22

 3.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m37.935s  +	0.247  31

 4.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m37.943s  +	0.255  34

 5.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m38.105s  +	0.417  29

 6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m38.507s  +	0.819  36

 7.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m38.735s  +	1.047  35

 8.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault                1m38.805s  +	1.117  26

 9.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                1m38.859s  +	1.171  31

10.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m39.327s  +	1.639  33

11.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m39.538s  +	1.850  33

12.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth      1m39.667s  +	1.979  37

13.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m39.771s  +	2.083  18

14.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m39.779s  +	2.091  17

15.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m39.828s  +	2.140  25

16.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1m39.925s  +	2.237  32

17.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m39.953s  +	2.265  30

18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault          1m40.476s  +	2.788  30

19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault          1m41.482s  +	3.794  32

20.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           1m42.902s  +	5.214  25

21.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth           1m43.850s  +	6.162   3

22.  Jerome D-Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth        1m44.008s  +	6.320  35

23.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth        1m44.747s  +	7.059  12


All Timing Unofficial

Bwahaha, poor beardy Branston! Virgin really need to invest in a wind tunnel, the CFD-only designs are clearly not good enough.

Lewis Hamilton has dropped a firm hint that his future at McLaren will depend on it providing him with a title-winning car, amid ongoing speculation about his future in F1.

Hamilton's current deal with McLaren runs out at the end of next year, and a recent switch of management to Simon Fuller's XIX Entertainment company has prompted talk that the former world champion will counter offers for other outfits when the time comes to sort a new deal.

Although Hamilton has pledged his full commitment to McLaren for now, he suggested in China that his 'loyalty' to McLaren would have a limit if his current team could not guarantee him a competitive ride.

Speaking to the British media whether he could see himself staying at McLaren for the rest of his career, Hamilton said: "I don't really envisage anything except winning world championships. I have only got a short period in Formula 1.

"I am fortunate enough to be in a top team where I am comfortable but I want to win championships."

When asked if his loyalty had limits, however, he responded: "It definitely does. I have always enjoyed racing here and would like to continue but you also, at the end of the year, have to assess what position you are in and what happened."

Lewis Hamilton says there is no question about his commitment to the McLaren team despite saying that loyalty has its limits.

The McLaren driver suggested to the British media on Thursday that his future at McLaren would depend on having a title-winning car at his disposal.

When asked if his loyalty had limits, however, he said: "It definitely does. I have always enjoyed racing here and would like to continue but you also, at the end of the year, have to assess what position you are in and what happened."

On Friday, however, Hamilton insisted there was no question about his loyalty to the British squad.

"I think that's just a saying. That's the way of life," Hamilton said about his comments after practice in China. "There is no question of my loyalty for my team. It's been my team since I was six years old.

"I'm here, I'm committed to them. I want to try and help them as well as becoming one of the most successful drivers myself. I want them to be out there to do that for me."

Hamilton added that there weren't many teams which have been as consistently strong during the past years.

"If you look at our performance over the years I think you can say I'm the only who has won a grand prix every year, so I've had a winning car every season. No other team can say that for the last five years. That's quite a positive thing."

I think what he really means is "come and get me".

- Renault has decided to wait until the Turkish Grand Prix to run the latest of its major updates, with the team confident that small tweaks to its R31 will be enough to help it challenge for a podium finish once again in China. They ran with a revised front wing, floor and diffuser in Malaysia last weekend - but decided against also committing to an improved rear-wing. And, with only a week between Malaysia and China, team principal Eric Boullier has said that Renault will now wait until Istanbul for its new wing as it already has enough small tweaks to try out. He also confirmed that the team was also evaluating further tweaks to its already impressive start system.

- Felipe Massa says Ferrari can take little heart from its strong form in the races - because it is paying too much of a penalty as a result of its lack of pace in qualifying. Fernando Alonso meanwhile believes Ferrari has made progress with its tyre warm-up issues, leaving him more upbeat of doing well in qualifying in China.

- Williams will decide tomorrow whether or not to race a new exhaust system the team ran in free practice on Friday in China. Rubens Barrichello, who ended the day 16th fastest, ran the exhaust on his car in the second session but the results of the test proved inconclusive.

- Paul di Resta says he will go into Chinese Grand Prix qualifying at a definite disadvantage after a fuel pressure problem ruled him out of second practice at Shanghai. The Scot had been 15th in the opening session but did not complete any laps at all in the afternoon.

- Nick Heidfeld admitted he simply made driving mistakes after crashing twice during Friday practice in China. The Renault driver damaged his front wing after going off track at Turn 10 during first practice, and then again after skidding off at Turn 13 in the second session. The German admitted he was just trying too hard. "It was a driving mistake. I went off twice and that can happen - I just went over the limit," said Heidfeld. "I was in a very good mood until I crashed into the tyre. I have been around for a while but I cannot remember crashing twice in one day, so that was not a good start." He added: "It was just my mistake. These things unfortunately can happen, I think a lot of other people also went off a bit and had spins. Unfortunately I destroyed two wings, it it shows it isn't easy today but it is not meant to be an excuse. I just f***** up!" Heidfeld was forced to revert to the preview spec front wing following his crash, as the team had only one available. The Renault driver admitted though he was still encouraged by the pace of his car, especially in first practice, and reckons there is more to come from the team.

Pirelli expects the Chinese Grand Prix to be a more normal race in terms of tyre strategy than last weekend's Malaysian event - with a one-stop on the cards judging by Friday running.

After the incident-packed race at Sepang, which witnessed the highest number of pitstops for a totally dry race in F1 history, Pirelli says the evidence from Friday practice is of a much more straightforward event at Shanghai.

Paul Hembery, Pirelli's director of motorsport, said that strategy stand-out team Sauber would almost certainly try a one-stop on Sunday - with only the fastest of outfits contemplating a three-stopper.

"From what we've seen here the wear rates are much lower compared to Sepang," said Hembery when asked by AUTOSPORT about what he had learned from Friday running.

"The hard tyre is probably about 20 laps on Friday, and the soft is 13. That even would suggest in the race that if you are doing 20 laps on a Friday then some people might even be thinking of doing a one-stop here - an aggressive one-stop strategy.

"They have to use the soft, and it depends how far they can take it. [sergio] Perez I am sure is going to get me in trouble with Bernie [Ecclestone] again and do a one-stop or something crazy like that.

"Two stops is going to be the most likely strategy I've seen. The only question I have is that maybe the quicker teams can maybe afford to do a three-stop because of the performance advantage."

One of the criticisms of the Malaysia event was that there was not much variation in strategy – because the quickest soft tyre was lasting an almost identical distance to the hard so it was a no-brainer to use it over a stint.

However, Hembery reckons that with the hard tyre running much longer here, then there was a chance of teams mixing it up more.

"We have much bigger delta on the wear levels – about 13 v 20, which will create a difference in strategy.

"Sepang was so dominated by the aggressive surface, which was consuming the tyres, that the compound wasn't having much to do with it. Distance was being dominated by the surface and we had very similar wear rates. We have the delta we would ordinarily see here."

And although pre-event predictions had been for China to witness degradation somewhere between the low levels of Melbourne and the extreme of Malaysia, Hembery now reckons a Melbourne scenario more likely – especially with Red Bull Racing looking so good on its tyres.

"We've seen one or two cars running here with very low degradation. I need to understand what they were up to and what they were doing, but certainly [sebastian] Vettel looked to have done a very long run in the second session and looked to have very, very, very low degradation. He was very consistent."

Friday's press conference:

TECHNICAL DIRECTORS - Aldo COSTA (Ferrari), James KEY (Sauber), Paddy LOWE (McLaren), Naoki TAKUNAGA (Renault), Geoff WILLIS (HRT)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. A question to you all. Can you give us some idea as to how things went today for you. James, could you start?

James KEY: It was okay today. For us it was a normal programme of running tyres, set-up work and so on. We had some test items in the morning. FP1 was a bit slippy to be honest, so there is not too much you can read into the first session, but we got some useful data. It was a normal programme and it seems to be alright. It was a bit like Malaysia for us, as we have got a bit of work to do overnight with the balance of the car, in sector one particularly, but otherwise it all went okay..

Q. Geoff, a bit of drama at the end there.

Geoff WILLIS: Yes, little bit of a mixed day. The morning was pretty good. Again, with poor track conditions and the amount the track improved, we were concentrating more on car aero work. We had some aero test pieces and just understanding the car as we play catch-up, not having done any pre-season testing. The morning went well. In the afternoon it went well with Narain's (Karthikeyan) car but we had some problems,which lost us most of the session with Tonio (Liuzzi), so not so successful. Having said that, I think we are a lot happier with the car today and we still have got some more work to do tomorrow.

Q. Tonio mentioned it was perhaps an hydraulics problem at the end of the morning that stopped him. Was that what kept him out of the session in the afternoon?

GW: Yes and no. It was a hydraulics installation problem. We damaged a high-pressure supply. In the afternoon it was a little difficult to get to the bottom of the problem. We had what we think is a software controls problem, corrupted files into the car, but eventually got it sorted and got it out so no more mechanical problems this afternoon.

Q. Naoki, poor old Nick Heidfeld. He seemed to have a bit of a dramatic day?

Naoki TAKUNAGA: Yeah, but overall I have to say it is a productive day. It is quite unfortunate Heidfeld having to go off twice, one in each of the sessions, but the damage is limited. We lost the two noses which is quite unfortunate but overall it is a productive day. The balance is different in the morning and the afternoon, so it is a mixture of everything but I think we have got good data.

Q. It was mentioned you had quite a lot of understeer in this morning's session. Did that continue in the afternoon or did you manage to iron that out?

NT: No, the balance is quite different in the afternoon from the morning. We suffered a lack of grip, basically, all day, and at the end of P2 the biggest problem was lack of traction so it is a bit of a mixture really.

Q. Aldo, maybe you weren't here all day, I don't know?

Aldo COSTA: It was not a very clean practice session both this morning and this afternoon, mainly with Fernando (Alonso). Felipe (Massa) did his programme with no big issues. With Fernando, we experienced two hydraulic leakages on the same detail, zero kilometre, component, so there must be some, let's say, quality or finger problem, so we have to see and solve for tomorrow. About the performance, we did with Fernando quite a lot of test this morning in terms of aero tests I mean. Quite a lot of constant speed, so not a lot of real running to test new pieces and test different configurations so quite interesting to us. We concentrated with Felipe on tyres, to try to understand better the tyres in this not very hot environment.

Q. Paddy?

Paddy LOWE: We had a busy day, trying to do more things than there is time to do. A mixture of testing new items on the car, mainly in P1, and doing all the homework with different fuel levels, different tyres, generally to our normal programme for that. I think generally happy. A few issues to iron out. A lot of decisions to take, a lot of data to analyse overnight and and then we will decide what we do tomorrow.

Q. Again a question to you all. You have now run the tyres in hot and cool conditions. Cool in Melbourne, hot in Malaysia. What have you learnt and what are your conclusions. James would you start.

JK: To be honest it has been a learning process and I still think it is to a certain extent because in winter testing we had pretty cool conditions on relatively green tracks, to begin with at lest. We were finding a certain level of degradation and a certain characteristic of the tyre and so on. Going to Melbourne was a complete surprise for everyone, I think, as the track temperature was a little bit higher and the surface was certainly a bit kinder to the tyres. Pirelli had always informed us that they felt the tyres would be better as a race tyre in warmer conditions and that is exactly what we found and I am sure it is the same for some others. In Melbourne, it was certainly different and bit of a pleasant surprise for us in the race with Sergio (Perez) particularly. With the hotter conditions in Kuala Lumpur we expected to have a more oversteering car and more rear limited car which proved to be the case but more than we expected by the time we got there and got running so the balance shift for us was quite big between Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur. Now, coming here, it is somewhere in the middle, so if you take Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur as the extremes, then you have got some sort of range with which to work with, but it is a bit too early to say so. I think we are still learning. Predictions are kind of in the right direction but the extremes of those predictions on what is going to happen to the balance of the car is still quite tricky to predict at the moment.

Q. Geoff?

GW: Certainly we are learning a lot and our experiments are somewhat complicated by the fact that we are changing the car hugely from session to session as we explore the operating envelope of the car and understand the car better so some of the car balance changes that we see since Melbourne practice to here are somewhat compensated by what we have been doing with the car. Certainly we are aware that we have to start from zero again with our understanding of what the tyres are going to do and particularly how they evolve during the weekend. It is interesting to see what strategies end up on the race day given what we think we know about them on Friday and Saturday. We are learning a lot and we all as a business will get to understand them more consistently in another two or three races.

Q. Naoki?

NT: I certainly agree with James and Geoff. We are in a very, very steep learning curve at the moment and we found different surprises in different circuits and in different conditions. It is quite difficult to predict precisely how the tyre will behave at this circuit, which is again different to any other previous races or tests, so we have to see. It is quite difficult to predict.

Q. Is it the difference in the tarmac itself and the aggressiveness of the tarmac or is it not the temperature?

NT: Yeah, if someone knows the precise answer, I would like to hear that. As I said we are still, together with Pirelli in a learning curve.

AC: There are several parameters more than that. Track asphalt condition as you said, asphalt type but also track temperature, also car set-up, and driving style, so there are a lot of parameters to play with and quite a lot to learn. You see that in the first two races, even in the same team, there was quite a lot of difference between driver to driver so quite a lot to learn overall.

Q. Paddy?

PL: Well I think it is really exciting as we have got a formula now where it seems to be panning out that the tyre wear is very, very critical. I think what is particularly interesting, great, really, a big challenge for us on the pit-wall side, is you have got to manage the tyres across qualifying and the race. If you were doing four stops you have used five out of six tyres, completely consumed in the race, and how you use those tyres in qualifying has a big consequence on your race result, which we saw to Lewis (Hamilton's) cost in Malaysia. Crucial phases of the race where he lost out were a consequence of tyre consumption that he had done in qualifying so great spectacle I think and a job for us to manage it well.

Q. It was interesting that your two drivers were faster than Sebastian Vettel at different times. Is that the consequence of that or was it Sebastian being slightly slower?

PL: I think most of the pace differences you see through the race are as a result of the state of the tyre at that instant. Every lap you run, the tyre is going off and sometimes at higher rates than others and different with different drivers. If you have done three laps on a tyre in qualifying, when you hit the track with it in a race you are already set back that amount. If another guy has come out on a new tyre then he is ahead of you, so I think there are phases in a race where you are quicker or slower than the people you are racing but it can come back to you depending on your tyre choices. That means the race result isn't really known until the very end as we have been seeing.

Q. Today I think you were testing a new floor and exhaust. How did that go? Has any decision been made whether you are going to run that during the race itself?

PL: Yeah, as I was saying earlier, we have got a lot of numbers to look at and we will be boring into those during the night and deciding what to fit. We have learned some things and I am sure some of the things that we have tried today will have worked.

Q. So we won't know until later?

PL: Yeah, and there is no big black or white answer. We have quite a few different pieces to try.

Q. Aldo, three of you went back to Maranello. What was the purpose of that and what was the conclusion you drew from going back to Maranello?

AC: The purpose is normal: go back home and spend a few days at home between one race or another. It was not an emergency going back to Maranello. It was already programmed. Of course, we have to catch up. We are quite behind, as we have seen in the first two races, so at home people are really motivated to progress and we were discussing, as usual, development programmes and which bits we can bring to the races, how many parts we can anticipate at what race and all this usual stuff. But being with a good awareness where we are at this moment in terms of performance so people are really, really pushing to catch up and really motivated to come back to the performance we would like to have.

Q. The President has predicted an amazing reaction. Would you agree?

AC: We are here to do this job and we will try to do it for sure.

Q. Naoki, Renault have got off to a flying start, but the the big test really is the pace of development. Do you think you can match the pace of development of McLaren and Ferrari.

NT: Well, obviously, it is a big, big challenge to fight against these strong teams, but I think in the past few years we have proven that we have very good in-season development pace, so I don't see any reason why we cannot do this again this year.

Q. You have been on the podium two races so far. Can you maintain that?

NT: Yes, I hope so. I think one of the big differences this year is that the roll-out performance of the car is higher than the past few years. I think it is important to keep up the pace during the season and to make the point constantly, so I hope we can keep up this pace.

Q. Geoff, the car is still incredibly new. Are you surprised at the pace that seems to be in it?

GW: I think I am certainly very pleased with the pace. It has had a very short gestation period. We started the design only in mid-December and it is 75-80 per cent a new car, and we clearly have had to take a number of short cuts in terms of its aerodynamic performance. We have got a very limited CFD programme, so one of the things we have been doing over the three race events is exploring the aero map. We don't have the sort of level or aero map we would expect to have to optimise the set-up of the car, so we are playing a lot with ride-heights and spring-rates, all sorts of things, to try and reverse engineer what we have got with the car. At the same time we have got quite a new group of people in the garage, so there is a lot of learning to be done there. Usual sort of mistakes and quick improvements. It is very impressive, in fact, over the last three race weekends how quickly it has all come together. We did have quite an experienced group of individuals designing the car but they hadn't worked together and they were certainly working in a distributed network and we have got a new group of people in the garage. Again, I am very pleased that almost on a session by session basis we make the car faster, we make decisions better. We still make mistakes, but I hope we learn from them. It is difficult to say whether it is better or worse than I thought. Starting from the restrictions we had I think we have done an extremely good job but we are all very determined to do a much, much better job. Looking back, there is a lot behind us and looking forward there is a lot in front of us and we just need to keep pushing every session, every race and bringing bits as fast as we possibly can. And building the team, growing as we go.

Q. How worried are you still about the 107 percent rule?

GW: Looking at today's times, not so worried. I certainly wouldn't want to get complacent about it but I think, judging what we can, with track improvement, fuel loads, tyre selection and run length, I think we are probably a little bit better than we were in Sepang.

Q. James, you've obviously had a fantastic couple of races. Very interesting to see how you've managed the tyres. You seem to have been concentrating on getting one less pit stop than everybody else. Is that something that was originally designed in the car, or was it something that happened in Australia and you've been concentrating on since?

JK: I think it's a bit of both. Obviously everyone had to design their cars without really understanding the tyres. Although Pirelli did a good job of giving up front information to everyone, it was always very provisional, you had to treat it a little bit cautiously because they were still developing the way the tyres were going to be and we didn't really know until winter testing what we would get. So from our side, we wanted to try and leave our options open with the way we set the car up, as much as possible. It was a more complicated car compared to last year with the number of options of mechanical set-up and so on. And it has allowed us, to a certain extent, to adapt to using the tyres in what we feel is an efficient way. It has its downsides. In Melbourne, for example, we had to use three laps to qualify but then we were able to do one stop. I think with the Melbourne situation, as I said, the tyres behaved in a very different way to perhaps what we expected. I think both drivers also did a very good job of saving the tyres through that event. We didn't plan a one stop but it became apparent on about lap 45, I think. So from that point forward, we felt that we can genuinely look at less stops because the drivers and the car seem to be able to hang onto the tyres. We had a slight hint that we were fairly kind to the tyres in winter testing but as I say, it was such a different situation in the winter compared to what we're seeing now that we couldn't read too much into that.

Q. And now it seems that everybody else is looking to do exactly what you've been doing with one less stop.

JK: Possibly, yeah. I think, to be honest, the two stop in Malaysia was kind of on the edge of how far we could push that. Again, that was down to some good tyre management by the drivers really, but it paid dividends as well. I think a three stop and a two stop are roughly the same time, but the two stop had less risk and at the end of the race we were twenty seconds ahead of a guy who was doing three stops who we were racing with, so it worked out for us.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. Andrea Cremonesi (La Gazzetta dello Sport) Two questions for Aldo Costa: the first is about the drivers. You talked before that there is some difference understanding the tyres between the two drivers. I would like to know which is the driver who understands the tyres better, between Fernando and Felipe. The second question is: today Fernando had new parts on the car, new front wing, new brake ducts. It was slower than Felipe; what does that mean when choosing these parts for the race or not?

AC: Regarding Fernando and Felipe understanding the tyres; I think both are doing quite a lot for the team to give feedback, information, comments. At this moment there isn't a big difference between the two in terms of how they wear the tyres in the last race. Maybe Felipe is a bit more in difficulty in cold conditions with the harder tyres, so we are trying to understand that and trying to help him in that respect. In terms of the development that we have done today; yes, we have tested aerodynamic components. If it was so easy to decide, just looking at the lap time, we wouldn't be here because we can stay at home and look at the lap times and then decide from there. Fortunately, there are, as Paddy said, tons of data. It's very difficult to test during a Friday with a limited amount of tyres and also tyres which are not in constant condition. So there is a lot of data to analyse and we will be busy all this afternoon, trying to understand which configuration has got more potential and then make a decision for tomorrow.

Q. (Joe Saward - Grand Prix Special) After the last Grand Prix in Malaysia, the fastest lap list had Sebastian Vettel sixth, one second behind Mark Webber, which suggests that in the course of the race he might have gone a lot faster. Do you think that is a realistic reading of how far ahead the Red Bull is at the moment, or do you think the qualifying numbers are more realistic?

PL: That's a difficult question, you know that. Impossible to know exactly where any of your competitors are, but particularly if the guy's in the lead, you don't know how much margin he's left. I don't know that Sebastian was really being chased particularly hard throughout the whole race and perhaps if he had been, we would know more. Certainly, we felt that if Lewis had managed to keep P2 on the first lap, he could have put him under more pressure potentially and we may have seen a very different race. I certainly don't think that Red Bull are cruising. I think they're feeling the pressure, we saw that in qualifying, in particular, in Malaysia.

Q. (Ted Kravitz - BBC Sport) This is for Aldo and James. James, you're running essentially the back end of a Ferrari - minus the rear wing - the engine, the gearbox, the KERS. Do you understand why the Ferrari seems to be essentially a quicker car and Aldo, do you understand why the Sauber can do one stop less than you in races?

JK: I think that what we get from Ferrari... obviously the KERS and engine, which are units which we build into the car. There are some architectural differences or let's say some influences architecturally that they have but fundamentally they are units that we put in the car. The gearbox is probably the biggest part of what we're supplied which influences the way in which we have to deal with the car, so the rear suspension obviously picks up off the gearbox, it's our design but the pick-up points are pre-determined although we worked closely with Ferrari and where they were headed with the 'box for this year and that works out as a pretty good process. I think that the rest of the car is really down to the philosophy that's supplied by the team and I think we would expect Ferrari to be a bit quicker than us, because they are, traditionally, a championship-winning team ultimately and we're not quite in that league yet. I think we picked up what we were given, we had some decent discussions at an early stage with Ferrari, but then it's really down to us to put the rest of the package together, and obviously that's the mechanical side. The aero side clearly plays a huge role in this and you've got to match your mechanical and your aero together to get the car to work properly and so on, and the front suspension needs to work in tune with the way the rear of the car is so the philosophy is that it's the whole car and the parts we get supplied play a part in that, but not a huge part.

AC: Yeah, not a lot to add. We supply the power train, all the rest is different, so in terms of tyre management, for example, you can have different suspension geometry, even if, as James said, starting with the pick-up points on the gearbox have to be the same so you can have different suspension geometry, different set-up as well as different aerodynamic development, so you may have a car that is easier on the tyres, thanks to the good job they have done. So it's very possible.

Q. (Joe Saward - Grand Prix Special) I want an answer from all of you this time: how many teams do you think will win races this year?

PL: At least two. Is that good enough?

AC: Let's hope three!

JK: I guess to follow on from that, about five, isn't it? We will see. It's the first couple of races of a long season. And just going back to your other point, Joe, what Paddy said before about the number of tyres you run dictates a lot about how quick your car looks. We did two stops with Kamui, for example, we never really shone with our lap times because we had to string the stints out whereas Webber did four stops or something, I think, so he was able to push a little bit more, so there may be something in that.

GW: I'm a little bit between two or four, the reason being that I think there are four possible contenders but sometimes the way seasons end up, two get shut out fighting each other for that opportunity. I think you can guess which.

NT: I think I would chose on the higher side, so four and the reason being that this year there are a lot of factors which add uncertainty to the races such as tyres, DRS and KERS. I think all of these combined will increase the volatility during the race, so I would expect four teams at least and of course I hope Renault is one of them.

Q. Andrea Cremonesi (La Gazzetta dello Sport) Mr Lowe, we know that McLaren made a big effort to catch up the Red Bulls. I would like to know if you can describe to us how big this effort was, something that might be obvious to you but not for us?

PL: I think this has been written about a fair deal in the press, but we had a philosophy that we followed in conceiving the car through the winter testing. I think that quite honestly, our ambitions exceed our ability to deliver, so fairly late on, through the winter testing, we realised we needed to regroup and consider a different design, something that we would actually know how to make and get on the car reliably. I think it's also worth pointing out that the car was desperately unreliable, actually, through the tests in February but not all as a consequence of this subject that we're talking about, so we had a range of issues which we fortunately managed to sort out. On the exhaust philosophy, we jumped ship, effectively, to a new design concept. I think it's a great credit to the team that they were able to learn how to exploit that in such a short space of time because I think one of the features of Formula One and the development amongst the teams is that we work together as a team, we follow philosophies. It's not always easy to look at what other people are doing and say 'OK, he's quick, let me just copy what he's doing', because a lot of these things are a consequence of actually, at times, years of development and a philosophy that gets you performance that's unique to the style of your team. I think that's one of the things that makes Formula One very interesting. Aldo's car is very very different to my car and yet the lap times in the end are very very similar as a consequence of many many years of building up an approach in each team, completely separately. So I think great credit to our team that we can take a completely different design and literally, in a matter of days, turn that into something that was competitive for Australia and then great that the drivers were able to exploit that and we got some reasonable results.

Q. (Julien Febreau - L'Equipe) Mr Costa, we know how important it is to find the same results on the track as in the wind tunnel. Is it a concern for you at the moment and could it explain your problems a bit?

AC: In the winter development, in the last test, we have tested a lot of new components and as I already said, some of them are not delivering the performance expected, so we started an investigation so we are doing correlation job between the track and the wind tunnel, trying to understand why that should be. A Formula One car, these days, is a very very complex aerodynamic machine so there are a lot of vortices that can interfere one with the other. It's not only happened to us, it's happened from time to time that developments are not bringing the expected performance. So we are doing this investigation and we think that by Turkey we should be able to answer all our questions.

Edited April 15, 2011 by Lineker

Lineker · April 16, 2011

Sebastian Vettel kept his clean sheet intact through the Chinese Grand Prix weekend by setting the fastest lap in the final free practice session in Shanghai.

The Red Bull driver, who was also fastest in both of Friday's sessions and who has won both of the first two races from pole position, showed no signs of relenting his grip on the field by setting a 1m34.968s lap. Such was his dominance, that each time he ventured out on to the track, he set a fastest lap time.

Jenson Button got closest to the German with a lap just 0.208s slower, while Lewis Hamilton moved up to third position in the closing stages having appeared to have had a mildly frustrating session that included at least one-off track moment.

Nico Rosberg was an impressive fourth fastest, having played a role at the top end of the times for much of the session.

Fernando Alonso was fifth fastest for Ferrari ahead of his team-mate Felipe Massa. Vitaly Petrov kept Renault in the hunt with the seventh quickest time, with Adrian Sutil, Michael Schumacher and Paul di Resta completing the top ten.

The Scot was the first man to get out on track and do some serious running having lost a great deal of time on Friday afternoon with a fuel pressure problem, and naturally the Force India driver was also then the early pace-setter with a 1m40.459s.

Before the 20-minute mark however, several drivers had joined di Resta - celebrating his 25th birthday - on track. Very quickly, Schumacher moved to the top of the times with a 1m38.516s.

Schumacher then improved that lap to set a 1m38.345s, which was enough to fend off not only di Resta, but also Sergio Perez's Sauber.

Of course this all became academic once the McLarens started firing in laps five minutes before the halfway point in the session, and Button shot to the top of the times with a 1m37.367s.

The 2009 world champion improved on that with his next lap, a 1m36.918s, and that was just as well because Rosberg - who has looked much more comfortable with the Mercedes this weekend - was just four thousandths slower!

And then, with 28 minutes of the session gone, Vettel put it all in to perspective with his first flying lap - a 1m36.053s on the prime tyre. That was 0.865s faster than anybody had gone up to that point, and more than a second faster than his own best from Friday.

His team-mate Mark Webber was not enjoying anything like that kind of serenity as once again the Australian found himself apparently dealing with an electrical problem - a slow exploratory lap (which included an off-track moment at Turn 6) ended with him being greeted back in the pits by engineers well protected against any KERS-related injuries.

With 20 minutes to go, Schumacher showed he wasn't done with this session and got within 0.088s of Vettel's time - albeit equipped with some of Pirelli's soft option tyres. His Mercedes team-mate Rosberg though went even better and moved to the top of the times with a 1m35.677s.

Webber finally got a timed lap in with 15 minutes to go, but apparently without the use of KERS, his lap good enough to place him sixth (which became 15th), splitting the Toro Rossos of Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari. But then the Australian headed back into the pits, clearly still unhappy with the car.

Rosberg stayed on top until the last five minutes when everyone came out in qualifying trim on soft tyres. He was finally dismissed from first position by Vettel, whose Red Bull was able to access its KERS, and the world champion became the only person over the weekend to go through the 1m34s barrier.
FP3


Pos  Driver                Team                   Time                Laps

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m34.968s            13

 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m35.176s  + 0.208s  15

 3.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m35.373s  + 0.405s  14

 4.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m35.677s  + 0.709s  18

 5.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m35.818s  + 0.850s  17

 6.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m35.971s  + 1.003s  15

 7.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                1m36.098s  + 1.130s  18

 8.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m36.125s  + 1.157s  15

 9.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m36.141s  + 1.173s  14

10.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m36.370s  + 1.402s  18

11.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault                1m36.404s  + 1.436s  16

12.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m36.582s  + 1.614s  18

13.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m36.596s  + 1.628s  17

14.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m36.717s  + 1.749s  16

15.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m36.896s  + 1.928s  5

16.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m36.953s  + 1.985s  14

17.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1m37.007s  + 2.039s  20

18.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth      1m37.304s  + 2.336s  18

19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault          1m38.176s  + 3.208s  12

20.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault          1m38.739s  + 3.771s  12

21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth        1m39.938s  + 4.970s  17

22.  Jerome D-Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth        1m39.998s  + 5.030s  16

23.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth           1m40.593s  + 5.625s  17

24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           1m40.881s  + 5.913s  18


All Timing Unofficial[/code]




Sebastian Vettel remained unbeatable in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, maintaining the form that saw him top all three Shanghai practice sessions to sweep to his third pole from three races in 2011.



But while one Red Bull sat on top of the qualifying results with a lap 0.7 seconds quicker than the McLarens, the other will start the race in 18th after a disaster for Mark Webber.



His car was repaired from its morning problems in time to join the session, but appeared to be running without KERS and was kept on the harder tyres at the end of Q1 as everyone else near the cut-off went for softs. As Michael Schumacher and Pastor Maldonado made late jumps up the order, Webber found himself 18th and eliminated.



Jenson Button emerged as Vettel's closest rival, but even the Briton was 0.7s adrift of pole as he beat his McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton to the outside front row position by 0.042s.



Nico Rosberg gave Mercedes its best result of the year so far with fourth place, only 0.2s down on the McLarens. He comfortable beat the Ferraris, which share row three, with Fernando Alonso ahead of Felipe Massa.



The upper midfield pack was shuffled by a late red flag in Q2, caused by Vitaly Petrov's Renault grinding to a halt on track at Turn 6.



That happened with two minutes left on the Q2 clock, at which point both Toro Rossos and both Force Indias were inside the top 10, while the Saubers, Williams, Mercedes and Petrov's team-mate Nick Heidfeld were not.



In the scramble that followed after the green, both STR drivers and Paul di Resta (Force India) hung on to their Q3 places, while Rosberg was the only man to move from outside the cut-off into the top 10, at the expense of Force India's Adrian Sutil.



Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi went on to claim the fourth row positions ahead of di Resta. Forced to sit out Q3, Petrov was left 10th.



A mistake at the hairpin left Michael Schumacher's Mercedes 14th behind Sutil and the Saubers. Heidfeld could not do better than 16th, placing him between the two Williams.



Webber's exit was the only surprise of Q1, which also saw the departure of the Lotus, Virgin and Hispania cars. Jerome D'Ambrosio outqualified Virgin team-mate Timo Glock for the first time, and both Hispanias were comfortably within the 107 per cent margin.



[code]Qualifying


Pos  Driver                Team                 Time           Gap   

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m33.706s

 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m34.421s  + 0.715

 3.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m34.463s  + 0.757

 4.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m34.670s  + 0.964

 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m35.119s  + 1.413

 6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m35.145s  + 1.439

 7.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m36.158s  + 2.452

 8.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m36.190s  + 2.484

 9.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m36.203s  + 2.497

10.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              No time

Q3 cut-off time: 1m35.858s                                   Gap **

11.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m35.874s  + 1.388

12.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m36.053s  + 1.567

13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m36.236s  + 1.750

14.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m36.457s  + 1.971

15.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m36.465s  + 1.979

16.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m36.611s  + 2.125

17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m36.956s  + 2.470

Q3 cut-off time: 1m36.147s                                    Gap *

18. Mark Webber            Red Bull-Renault     1m36.468s  + 1.196

19. Heikki Kovalainen      Lotus-Renault        1m37.894s  + 2.622

20. Jarno Trulli           Lotus-Renault        1m38.318s  + 3.046

21. Jerome D-Ambrosio      Virgin-Cosworth      1m39.119s  + 3.847

22. Timo Glock             Virgin-Cosworth      1m39.708s  + 4.436

23. Tonio Liuzzi           HRT-Cosworth         1m40.212s  + 4.940

24. Narain Karthikeyan     HRT-Cosworth         1m40.445s  + 5.173


107% time: 1m41.941s


* Gap to quickest in Q1


** Gap to quickest in Q2

Oh dear Mark Webber. No KERS and cold tyres led to a very poor quali for him. Fantastic from Alguersuari and di Resta, Heidfeld continues to be inconsistent. Better from Rosberg's Mercedes. McLaren sacrifices position on the grid for better race tyres.

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has been questioned by state prosecutors in Germany as part of an ongoing investigation about alleged payments of $50 million (USD) to a German banker.

In a statement issued by Ecclestone's office in London on Friday night, F1's commercial right holder said that he had been assisting German authorities - and had travelled to Germany as part of the inquiry into the activities of banker Gerhard Gribkowsky.

"I have been cooperating with the State Prosecution Office's investigation of the affairs of Dr Gribkowsky since the outset," said Ecclestone.

"When I was informed that there was a first suspicion in relation to my perceived involvement in the matter, I went to see the Senior State Prosecutor and her team in Munich earlier this month to clear up any allegations against me."

Gribkowsky was arrested earlier this year amid investigations about the sale of F1 by his then employers BayernLB to current owners CVC in 2006 - and centred on $50 million of payments that the German is alleged to have received.

Ecclestone has consistently denied any link with those alleged payments or involvement in the matter – and added that he was confident German authorities would concur.

"I am confident that when the full facts have been established, I will be exonerated of blame for any wrongdoing," he added.

Pirelli ready to discuss marbling with teams:

Pirelli is ready to sit down with teams to discuss whether the situation of tyre marbles in Formula 1 needs to be improved - but reckons the matter is well under control.

One of the consequences of Pirelli's high-degrading tyres has been an increase in the amount of rubber 'marbles' that are left on the track over the course of a race weekend.

A number of drivers have complained about being hit by these pieces of rubber while out on track - and also that it makes life difficult when running off the racing line.

Pirelli's director of motorsport Paul Hembery thinks the situation is not too extreme though – although he says that if teams want it to be improved his company is ready to react.

"You have to imagine our position – as we cannot take just one person's point of view or two people's point of view," Hembery said when asked by AUTOSPORT about the marbles situation.

"We have to take every single teams' point of view. They are all important and it doesn't matter where they are on the grid – they are all partners so they have to be in agreement with what they want us to do.

"I don't think there is any particular agreement on it. We have always said that we don't underplay issues, and if there are issues that are deemed to be something that needs to be addressed then we will sit down with them and work on a plan. But for the moment that isn't the case.

"We will sit down with them on regular intervals talking about what we want to do with tyres going forward anyway, and if this becomes a theme then we will deal with it the right way."

Hembery says that implementing changes to the tyres to improve the marbles situation is relatively straightforward – although believes that the subject is only a talking point now because it has not been seen in F1 for several years.

"We've had this many times in the past. It exists in almost all forms of circuit racing, so it is not a particularly new thing - it is just we haven't seen it in the last few years.

"To try and get the number of tyre changes we have had, the tyre does have to wear, and the rubber has to go somewhere. The only way to change the situation would be to modify the way it wears - which is a chemical activity with the composition of the tyre. The other option is to go with a more durable tyre and maybe reduce the tread thickness to create the same effect – so instead of having 2.5mm we go to 1.5mm."

Hembery believes the marbles situation will be better in China this weekend – although it could be quite extreme again at the next race in Turkey, especially with more Pirelli rubber on track in GP3 and GP2.

"Possibly Istanbul, being an abrasive track, we might have it again. We have GP2 and GP3 there too, which will not assist again from that point of view. But it is what it is.

"I know some of the drivers in the FIA press conferences have said that it has been part of motorsport for many years. It is something we have seen before; it was something in the tyre wars when we were looking at faster stickier tyres. You learn to deal with it, which is what I think they are doing."

Post-qualifying press conference:

TV UNILATERALS

Q. What a surprise to see you here Sebastian! Another race, another pole. That is four in a row now.

Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah I mean obviously we did it again but I tried to keep reminding myself and the team as well that every single time it's tough. I don't think today was as straightforward as we probably planned, especially in Q2, I didn't feel 100 per cent comfortable. I had a bit of a mistake in the run I had in Q2. But I was confident and in Q3 we were able to improve by quite a lot. But, as I say, step-by-step. It all starts from zero again. Today we did a good job, one more time, but all that is eight metres tomorrow so we are looking to score some points tomorrow. It will be a long race. I think we can be as happy as we can be with the car, with everything around us. We had very good long runs on Friday so I think we have reason to feel good. But it is also a threat to feel too good. I pay attention so that does not happen and tomorrow is a new day and whatever happened today is not really of much of an importance except that we got a very good spot on the grid.

Q. Jenson, congratulations on your front row start. At any stage did you think it could be pole today or realistically were you and McLaren just chasing the Red Bulls.

Jenson BUTTON: I mean in the heat of the moment you always hope that it is possible, but the pace in Q3 was phenomenal of Sebastian and the Red Bull. In Q2 it looked like it was possible and that's why I chose to run with two tyres in Q3 to give it a go and see if we can, but then I saw Seb's time and thought 'ok, we are maybe going to have to fight for second place'. But it's nice for me. This is my best grid slot of the year. From where we were on Friday I don't think either of us were happy with the balance and I think we have improved the car a lot and we should be happy with what we have achieved today. I think the team did a great job of really turning the car around over the last two days so big thanks to them. Also I had a little surprise when my girlfriend rocked up before qualifying so maybe that was a little helping hand.

Q. Maybe your girlfriend will turn up tomorrow Lewis to give you a helping hand. Third on the grid, but you only went out for one run in Q3. Was that, looking back to Malaysia, a result of what happened there where you flat-spotted one of your tyres or what was the reason behind it?

Lewis HAMILTON: The reason behind it was clearly the last race showed how important it is to have fresh tyres during the race. Obviously we would have a used option if we are doing a three stop. In the last race I only had two options I could use and then I had a new prime and an old prime. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of fresh tyres so we are in quite a strong position. I have got the options I just qualified on, a new set of options and a new set of primes and a very decent set of options again. Just tried to increase the chances for the race as that is where it actually counts.

Q. Sebastian, you sat in the car for two minutes when you finally came into parce ferme before you were given the thumbs up to get out. What was the reason behind that?

SV: Well it was pretty easy. With the new regulations and the fixed weight distribution the FIA has the chance whenever they want to check that and unless I get a thumbs up and it is okay from an official that I can jump out of the car I have to remain seated. Otherwise, if I do it the other way around I might get into trouble. Maybe I didn't see him or didn't see the steward the first time so I ended up waiting and waiting until we clarified and someone said okay it is good to go out.

Q. KERS will be very important off the start tomorrow. Will you be running it as your team-mate has had a few problems in that sort of situation.

SV: Yeah it's true Mark (Webber) did not have a good day. Already this morning he had some problems and in qualifying it was quite a shame as I think the car is quick enough. He has had a tough weekend so far so it is a shame that we are not both up there. But I think he improved the last race pretty well from where he was after the first lap so I hope he has a good race. Looking at us our KERS was running and we were using it and we will be using it as well tomorrow from the start. It is important I guess against those two red or silver or whatever guys.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Sebastian, it seems to have been an absolutely perfect weekend for you so far?

SV: I mean yesterday was very good. I think we had a strong day, no problems with the car and a lot of laps. We are very happy also with the pace we thought we had. Today, this morning, was smooth so compared to last weekend it was better preparation for qualy. In qualy I was reasonably happy, as happy as I can be, with Q1 and Q2. Then going into Q3 we were able to get even more out of the car again and I was very happy with the lap I did. Still it is difficult to judge. Second time this year we were in a good or strong situation with a big gap before the final run, but you never know. You know to a certain extent how much you pushed harder and probably where you gained the lap time to yourself compared to before but you don' t know how much the others have left. Lewis decided to do only one run so we went back out but as soon as we saw there is no threat we abort the run and came in so we were able to save the tyres a bit. Overall very happy. It is not easy obviously. It all starts again from zero but people tend to forget that. I am very happy with the team at this stage, the way we all remain focussed. I think we did a very good job today. We are happy but tomorrow is a new day so looking forward to that.

Q. We have heard a lot about tyre management overall. Not just looking after the tyres but having enough for the race itself. What's your situation as we heard from Lewis what his situation is?

SV: Yeah, I didn't count. I don't know how many sets he has left. Obviously he saved a set of options which can be important but the main thing is that you know your tyres are in good shape and I think we did a very good job. We did what was necessary. In hindsight with the qualifying system we have had now for quite a while it is very easy to save a set of tyres and then not making it and then you miss out more than probably starting the race with a set less or a scrubbed set rather than a new set. It is quite a shame for Mark as he was quick. He didn't really have a smooth weekend. He had some problems. I think in the end it was tight with the timing and he went out on a set of hards, of primes, and as you said tyre management, the way you bring the tyres in, can be important and the hard tyre is probably not as easy as the option. Not much he was missing, but it is shame that we could not have both cars up there but looking at myself obviously very happy.

Q. Jenson, lucky overalls the red and white for China and the dragon on them as well. What do you reckon?

JB: I quite like these. I think they are pretty flash. It has been a reasonably good day for us. Yesterday I don't think we had the perfect balance. The car didn't feel bad but I don't think we were extracting the best out of it whereas today we made some good chances, especially overnight, and the car was a lot more consistent to drive. I think we pretty much extracted what we could out of it today so a big thank you to the guys for working hard and happy to be P2. It is the best qualifying of the year for me and a much better place to start the race from.

Q. You and Sebastian were the only two who actually did a second run. What sort of tyre situation are you in and is the strategy fairly simple tomorrow. I remember in Malaysia you said the car came alive on the harder tyre at the end of the race.

JB: Well I think when you have got a quick car like we have it is a lot easier to have new sets of tyres. Obviously Lewis is in the best position in terms of tyres but Sebastian and myself have done only two laps on our other set of options, the one that would have been new, so for me it was important to get position on the grid for the race. After Q2 I thought it was possible to get pole position. Obviously that was way out of reach but I thought there was an opportunity and I felt that it was better to use both tyres in Q3 and get the best out of the car. Unfortunately the end of Q3 I couldn't actually go any quicker. I actually lost time on my last set so we aborted it. But we are in a good pace for the race and I look forward to it around here. It is always a fun place to race.

Q. Lewis, not so happy with the car yesterday, what about today?

LH: Yeah, pretty much the same as Jenson. We made some changes and it seemed to go quite well today, so much happier with the car throughout qualifying.

Q. There have been new parts on the car, I understand it's a combination of what you've already been running and the new parts as well.

LH: We haven't made much of a step this weekend but a step is a step so it's a positive at least, and we're quite happy with where we are. Obviously we need to make some more steps forward but I think there are some good things in the pipeline.

Q. Is the tyre strategy fairly simple for you now, looking at last weekend and three weeks ago as well, or is it still very much a mystery?

LH: The strategy is quite simple but obviously the race is never simple: you have the start, you have all the stops that you need to do, you have to look after the tyres and so it's going to be very tricky again tomorrow but I really wanted to put myself in a decent spot, and I feel I am in a decent spot, and in a position to really have a good opportunity in the race because I didn't really have the best opportunity in the last race and that's what caused the result.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Wenfei Wang - Titan Sports) Sebastian, today this is the third successive pole position in the new season; are you satisfied with all the components of the RB7, including the KERS and the DRS? Do you think there is any more room for the car to be improved?

SV: Obviously I'm very happy to be on pole position. I think we can be as happy as we can be for tomorrow. As I said, we had a very good run on Friday so yesterday, free practice, I think we were happy with the car we had and with the long runs, also managing the tyres. As I said, we're as happy as we can be going into the race tomorrow, with all the components on the car including KERS, so I was working without any problems today and yeah, I'm confident we will tomorrow. I think between Malaysia and here we have done another little step forward given that there is only very little time, so I'm looking forward to the race here. As Jenson said, it's usually quite exciting and a lot of things can happen, so it won't be an easy race and regarding the improvements on the car, the team is pushing as hard as they can. We brought a few things here. Overseas it's pretty difficult to react; I think once we go to Europe – I think it's the same for everyone – then it's a bit easier to bring the parts, customs are less strict. It makes our life or the team's life much easier. I think that to stay where we are now we have to keep pushing hard because I can assure you, people like McLaren, Mercedes or Ferrari, for sure they are not resting at this stage, so we have to keep pushing at least as hard as they do.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado do Sao Paulo) Jenson and Lewis, as Sebastian said some minutes ago, he will use the KERS at the start. If he doesn't use it in the race, is it realistic for both of you to fight for victory with him?

JB: We don't really know what his pace in the race is going to be like. If he's a second quicker, it's definitely not possible to race with him, whereas if he's four tenths quicker normally and then we have KERS, it's possible. I don't know. We've got to see where we stand tomorrow. If you're talking about the start, there's a very short period before turn one, it's going to be very difficult to get past, even with KERS, if Sebastian doesn't run it, which I'm sure they will. But during the race, I think they're quick anyway. If you look at Malaysia, a lot of the race he didn't use KERS and his pace was still very good.

Q. (Joris Fioriti – Agence France Presse) Jenson and Lewis, how motivated can you be knowing that doing your best you can only finish seven tenths behind Sebastian Vettel? He seems to be unreachable; he's been like this for the first two races and it might keep on being like this for a long time.

LH: We're doing our best to catch up, you know? It's encouraging for us to have been on the first and second row for the first three races, considering where we were in winter testing. I think we're happier than we could have ever have hoped at this point of the year. It's clear, since God knows when, since 2009, that they've had a ridiculously fast car, a great job done by the team and Sebastian and so we are pushing as hard as we can to close the gap. It is possible but I'm sure it will take several races, probably, before we get to where they are now, but I'm sure they will also make many, many steps forward, so we will continue in the chase, and hope that our development rate can be as fast as theirs, if not better.

JB: Yeah, there are 24 of us on the grid and there's only one person that's ever going to be completely fulfilled with their race result and that's the way Formula One is, it's all about winning. We are in a better position than anyone else on the grid to challenge the Red Bulls. We should be happy with that and what we've achieved so far this year. This is a team that will never give up. They've fought for so many World Championships and they have the resources, they have the manpower and they have the passion to really fight for this and they will do everything they can to make sure that we catch Red Bull sooner rather than later.

Q. (Joris Fioriti – Agence France Presse) But personally, isn't it depressing for you that whatever you do it doesn't seem to get you closer?

JB: Yeah, but I've been racing in F1 for twelve years and more often than not there's a guy up the front – he was normally wearing red. It's the way Formula One is, it's a very competitive sport and if you look at the last five years there's been a different World Champion every year and we've got to try and make sure that this one in the middle here (Sebastian Vettel) doesn't walk away with it this year. But it's not depressing because you work as a team, you win as team, you lose as a team and we are just going to fight as hard as we can, to get everything out of this car and more and really take the fight to Red Bull which is tough at the moment but it's three races in, there's another 16 races to go – well, there's actually 17 races to go.

Q. (Yiying Shi - F1 Express) Sebastian, are you expecting it to be more difficult back in Europe as other teams will have big improvements?

SV: As I said earlier, we have to go step-by-step. As I said, teams like McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes, obviously they are not as happy as they want to be and they are pushing very hard, so to stay where we are, we have to push harder than them to stay there, so we are all aware of that. Since halfway through 2009 we have had a very, very competitive car and we enjoy running at the front but we still haven't forgotten how it feels to run at the back, not only finishing fourth, fifth, sixth, even further down. That's Formula One, just as Jenson says, it's competitive. Sometimes you might be in a comfortable situation, other times it will be very tight and other times you will be behind but then again, there are so many races left and so many things can happen. I can't predict the future. As I say, I'm happy as I can be at this stage but I can't predict the future, but I'm confident that we will have good races in the future as well, but first of all, there's a race tomorrow.

Q. (Stephane Barbe – L'Equipe) Jenson and Lewis, do you think the DRS zone is as interesting as it was in Malaysia?

JB: The line has changed. When I woke up this morning and got in, I noticed that the DRS position has changed on the circuit. It was 900-odd meters, now it's 750 before the last corner. 752 meters. It matters where you brake. Well, it doesn't really, does it? It's still pretty difficult to overtake round here, even with the DRS. A lot of it depends on the wind as well in terms of gear ratios. You've got to get a very good exit out of turn 13 to really tow up to the car in front and you've also got to be close enough to the car in front.

LUKIE · April 17, 2011

How great is this race so far. Love the new tyres and more pitstops!

maninblack · April 17, 2011

And then my TV conks out the day of the Shanghai GP. Augh.

MJB · April 17, 2011

Agreed. The race is awesome at the minute and great drives so far from Rosberg and Massa. Vettel looks human in this race, McLaren look solid and I'll be interested to see how Massa and Vettel's tyres hold out.

Edit: Credit to Mark Webber. Awful qualifying yesterday and still without KERS, yet he's climbed 12 places to 6th.

C'MON LEWIS !!!

Edited April 17, 2011 by MJB

LUKIE · April 17, 2011

Podium for Webber after terrible qualifying, and a below-average start. Amazing drive. He has now gone from being on the "pathetic" part of my scale, to being "shit with flashes of greatness".

Lineker · April 18, 2011

Lewis Hamilton ended Sebastian Vettel's run of wins with an incredible charge to victory in the Chinese Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver's three-stop strategy proved a better bet than Vettel's two stops, allowing Hamilton to hunt down and pass the tyre-hampered Red Bull in the final laps.

Mark Webber drove an outstanding race to come from 18th on the grid to third in the second Red Bull, ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button and Mercedes' Nico Rosberg - both of whom led for long spells in an utterly absorbing race.

Vettel's afternoon began to get complicated with a poor start that allowed both McLarens to get past him into Turn 1 and gave him a few headaches resisting Rosberg through the opening corners.

The top three then ran in a queue covered by 2s through the first stint, with Rosberg a few seconds behind, fending off the Ferraris, which were led by Felipe Massa.

Mercedes then pulled a masterstroke by bringing Rosberg in on lap 12. The German emerged in clear air and made the most of his fresh tyres, but was also helped by a chaotic few laps for the top three.

As Hamilton's tyre performance faded, Vettel surged past him using the DRS wing on the back straight. Button and Vettel then immediately pitted nose to tail, but bizarrely Button pulled into the Red Bull pit stall rather than McLaren's, and was frantically waved on to the correct pit, slightly slowing both stops, although Red Bull reacted fast and still got Vettel out ahead.

With Hamilton losing pace dramatically on his in-lap and being caught and passed by Massa, Rosberg's new-tyre pace and uncomplicated out-laps really paid dividends. As the second stint started, Rosberg led Vettel by 5s, with Button, Massa and Hamilton giving chase.

But while Rosberg and the McLarens were committed to three-stop strategies, Vettel and Massa had decided to go for just two. The latter looked like the best plan once everyone had made their second stops just after half-distance, for though that put Vettel and Massa fourth and fifth behind Rosberg and the McLarens, they were matching the leaders' pace and not allowing the top three to pull out a sufficient margin to stay ahead when they made their additional stops.

Hamilton was now on a charge though, slicing down the inside of Button to take second on lap 35, and then quickly catching Rosberg after their third stops and diving past him into Turn 6.

He then hunted down the two-stopping Massa and passed the Ferrari with ease on the pits straight with 12 laps to go.

Next in his sights was Vettel and by lap 50 Hamilton was right with the Red Bull and attacking with the DRS wing on the back straight, though the championship leader doggedly hugged the inside line at the hairpin every time the McLaren drew alongside.

Hamilton had to try something different, and on lap 52 he got much better traction out of Turn 6 and swept through on the inside into the fast Turn 7, before quickly scampering away to take a breakthrough victory in a race that proved Formula 1's 2011 rules package is achieving everything the rule-makers could have hoped for. It was also an incredible result considering a problem with the McLaren's fuel system almost forced him to start from the pitlane - the car only just making it out of the garage in time.

Rosberg fell behind Button when he ran wide trying to pass Massa. With his tyres just too old to resist the three-stoppers, Massa was swiftly overtaken by Button, Rosberg and even Webber - who also became a factor in the podium battle in the enthralling final stages.

The Australian had made little impression in his first stint on hard tyres, but like Sepang a week ago, stopping three times gave him plenty of opportunity to gain ground in clear air - and saving the much quicker softs for the final stint when everyone else was on hards gave him a huge pace advantage, as he proved by grabbing fourth from Rosberg with a Turn 6 dive three laps from the end. Lapping 2s quicker than anyone else, Webber then caught Button at the end of the penultimate lap and grabbed a sensational podium finish.

Massa had to settle for sixth, but could take satisfaction from outpacing team-mate Fernando Alonso, who both lacked Massa's speed and lost ground emerging into traffic after pitstops. He just beat Michael Schumacher to seventh, the Mercedes having got clear of the midfield by making a very early first of three stops.

Renault's podium run ended with Vitaly Petrov only able to take ninth place ahead of Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber. Paul di Resta was looking good for more points until fading in the final few laps, leaving him 11th ahead of Nick Heidfeld's Renault, with which he clashed in the closing moments. Adrian Sutil's race in the second Force India was spoiled by contact with Sergio Perez, for which the Sauber driver was penalised.

Toro Rosso's great qualifying effort turned to nothing, with both drivers soon falling down the order - Sebastien Buemi finishing only 14th behind Rubens Barrichello's Williams, and Jaime Alguersuari retiring when a wheel fell off after his pitstop. Behind Sutil, Heikki Kovalainen gave Lotus plenty to cheer by beating Perez and Pastor Maldonado's Williams to 16th.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Chinese Grand Prix
Shanghai International Circuit, China;
56 laps; 305.066km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1h36:58.226
2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 5.198
3. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 7.555
4. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 10.000
5. Rosberg Mercedes + 13.448
6. Massa Ferrari + 15.840
7. Alonso Ferrari + 30.622
8. Schumacher Mercedes + 31.206
9. Petrov Renault + 57.404
10. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:03.273
11. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:08.757
12. Heidfeld Renault + 1:12.739
13. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1:30.189
14. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:30.671
15. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
16. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 1 lap
17. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
18. Maldonado Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
19. Trulli Lotus-Renault + 1 lap
20. D-Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
22. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
23. Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:38.993

Not classified/retirements:

Driver Team On lap
Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 12

World Championship standings, round 3:

Drivers: Constructors:
1. Vettel 68 1. Red Bull-Renault 105
2. Hamilton 47 2. McLaren-Mercedes 85
3. Button 38 3. Ferrari 50
4. Webber 37 4. Renault 32
5. Alonso 26 5. Mercedes 16
6. Massa 24 6. Sauber-Ferrari 7
7. Petrov 17 7. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4
8. Heidfeld 15 8. Force India-Mercedes 4
9. Rosberg 10
10. Kobayashi 7
11. Schumacher 6
12. Buemi 4
13. Di Resta 2
14. Sutil 2

All timing unofficial[/code]

Phenomenal stuff from both Webber and Hamilton. What an amazing race though, this season won;t be the formality many thought it might have been for sure. And a massive kudos to Team Lotus, who beat cars in a straight, competitive situation for the first time.

Post-race press conference:

[spoiler]TV UNILATERALS

Q. Lewis, you made a gamble to keep back a fresh set of tyres. Was it the gamble that paid off for you today?

Lewis HAMILTON: I think today the strategy we came up with going into qualifying definitely helped. I think my new option tyre seemed to last a little bit longer than the guys in front but I think it was quite a few things that came together really. The pitstops were fantastic. It was good for us. The guys are always pushing to improve and the car felt great. I was just trying to nurse my tyres whilst trying to pick up pace. It was one of the best races I have experienced where guys were out in front of me and I had to do quite a lot of overtaking. But thumbs up to the guys back at the factory and in the garage. They really put their hearts into developing the car and making the car the best it can be every weekend. It feels amazing to be able to bring home the victory for them.

Q. We saw your emotion at the end of the race. We didn't quite see your emotion at the start of the race. What was going on with your car as you only just made it to the grid and how worried were you that you might not be able to start?

LH: I don't think worried was coming into my thoughts to be honest. I was in the car nice and early to go out and then we had a problem as the car just would not start. I am still not sure exactly what went on but they had to take a lot of the bodywork off and I knew there was six minutes to go. Then there was two minutes to go but fortunately everything just came together very quickly. The guys did a great job but, of course, for me it is very important to stay as clam as possible as that reflects on all the guys in the garage. I tried to stay positive and they got the car out which was the most important.

Q. Sebastian, beaten off the line by both McLarens but you quickly got the lead back again. Did you feel at any stage that a two stop strategy might have been the wrong choice today?

Sebastian VETTEL: Well I think the start was not the best we had this year On top of that it seems that for some reason the left hand side here is worse than the right hand side, plus the fact that you turn right doesn't help. But it was not a 100 per cent good start so I lost also the position to Lewis who started behind me. Then it was about being patient. I think we treated the tyres better in the first stint and could have stayed out but there is no point doing that as you try to pit earlier. I came to the box and afterwards came out first, which was good. But it was quite a surprise seeing Jenson in front of me when he went into my garage. I just hoped for him to carry on. We had something similar two years ago with the Toro Rosso. I don't know what attracts people to stop in our garage but fortunately it had no affect. The guys kept their heads cool, we kept going and, as I said, we came out into the lead. Then I think we probably tried too hard staying on two stops so the middle stint ideally should have been a bit longer but in the end you find yourself out there on the hard tyre. I saw Lewis coming closer and closer and there was no point really. I tried to defend as much as I could without losing too much time to the guys behind but he found his way past easily. It was a difficult race for us. We did a couple of mistakes, on top of that we had some problems, but still we finished second so I am very, very happy with that. First of all, congratulations to Lewis and to McLaren. They did a very good job and it shows one race, you try something a bit different and if you do mistakes it is natural and there is someone else to beat you. I think it was a good race for us as we can learn a lot today. I am the only one with two stops up here so there is surely something to look into tonight.

Q. Just how difficult was it given the lack of communication you had with the pit-wall in the latter stages?

SV: It didn't make it easier. Usually you exchange information, how the tyres are, what the other guys do, what tyres they are on and so on. I asked a lot of questions but did not get any answers. We had a problem with communication. On top of that we had some problems with the KERS during the race. It wasn't a trouble free race. Mark obviously had a good race, very good pace, so the pace was there. It was there all weekend but once we decided to go to two stop you have to be patient, look after your tyres and when it doesn't work it doesn't work. That's why I think we missed that one step today.

Q. Mark, after qualifying 18th yesterday you said given your luck on the Saturday you might get hit by a truck. It seems you drove that truck straight the way through the field today. A storming performance from third.

Mark WEBBER: Yeah, it was an interesting grand prix. I think we decided to start on the prime, the hard tyre, in the first stint which we know was not the most desired tyre for everyone in the field as it doesn't really have the characteristics of a hard tyre in terms of sometimes duration and lots of things like that so got that out of the way. But that was quite tricky actually as even with the guys I was with it was not easy. Everyone was using the DRS at the same time, which we pretty much predicted, because of the type of cars ahead of me and how they qualified. It wasn't easy to come back through those guys and I had a mistake in turn two on my in-lap, the tyres basically did not have much left of them, but I got the car back. We really started from there. When you still see P17 on your board after 15 laps, or whatever it was, you think 'how is this going to come?' But then all of a sudden I just felt comfortable with the car. I had a few sets of tyres left from after qualifying so that helped a bit. Maybe that is the best way to do it all the time, not even take part in qualifying and just go from there. But all jokes aside I think the guys did an incredible job. Back-to-back races for us and it is clear we have not had the smoothest run with my car, but they haven't given up and that was a drive for them today and everyone back at the factory. Again congratulations to Lewis. It was good that someone finally, of course Seb is in the same team but he has been on a phenomenal run and we are all here together fighting for victories. Shame McLaren won in a way but also we can't let Seb get too far away, so it was good day for the racing and good day for us in terms of points for the team.

Q. Lewis, your first grand prix race win of the season and the first non-Red Bull race win of the season. Is this game on in the title now?

LH: I think we have still got a long road ahead of us but we are working very, very hard to close the gap. I think the race pace we are quite similar but in qualifying we still have got a lot of work to do. But I am absolutely overwhelmed. It feels like a long, long time since I was sitting here. Feel very proud and extremely grateful for all the hard work the guys put in and I will continue to push. These guys do a fantastic job and I am looking forward to many, many more great races like this.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Lewis, we were just talking about trying to remain calm in the garage with everyone rushing around wiping up whatever it was on the floor. But you had no idea what it was?

LH: I really didn't know. The car just wouldn't start. I was very, very curious. We have had it not start initially several times in the past so I thought it was nothing. But when they kept trying it was becoming more and more of a concern for everyone. I could see everyone was doing their best to find out what the situation was and also fix it so I didn't want to be asking questions all the time, saying 'what is going on, what's going on' so I just said 'how long have we got until the pit-lance closes?' It was six minutes at the time so I could relax really. I think I could relax at the time as I just have real confidence in the guys that they would figure it out. I didn't think it was going to be too big a problem, but it was right on the limit. I don't know how long?

Q. Thirty seconds.

LH: Thirty seconds, yeah. As I was driving to the light I was nervous that just as I got to it, it would go red, but fortunately we got out and there was no problem. Then there was a bit of a rush on the grid with the guys but as always they did a professional job, kept their heads cool and thanks to that we are sitting here having won.

Q. Combined with the fact that it has been a car that you have made into a winner in three weeks really from Australia where there were brand new bits on it. In itself, that is phenomenal.

LH: It is and that's really a true showing of the strength of our team. We came out to Barcelona with the upgrade package we had there and it really wasn't working and the reliability was a disaster. We couldn't even get past 20 laps. Then they pushed very hard in the space of a week-and-a-half, two weeks, and it was just incredible what they were able to bring to Australia. Australia was our first race distance and the car has been great. It really has been great. Red Bull are doing a fantastic job. They are very, very fast. They have got a wonderful car and they are doing the job and we are having to push with absolutely everything we have to try and close the gap. I think today we were similar pace perhaps in the race, I think they were generally a little bit quicker, but I think it was just due to us just trying to be a little bit smarter on the strategy and making it work and fortunately it did today. Other times perhaps it won't work out but today it did so we are very happy.

Q. Was that the reason for the emotion at the end. The relief of getting on to the top of the podium?

LH: I think the emotion probably comes from the desire to win, the desire to be better and the desire to compete against the toughest drivers in the world. When you haven't won for a while, I can't remember the last time I won but when you haven't won for a while it feels like an eternity so you just keep pushing, trying to keep your mind fresh. I think with the whole thing that happened in the pit-lane, I was confident going into the race but perhaps I wasn't even going to be in the race. I thought I was going to be back with Mark and obviously just the way the race turned out. I came out behind someone and I think Sebastian came past me at one stage. I wanted to pit at one stage and Jenson was pitting so I couldn't pit as he was pitting. I had to try and keep things up and I was just able to pull through several cars. I couldn't believe I was catching Sebastian. He was doing a great job to stay ahead. He put up a very, very fair and strong fight and I am very happy I was able to get by.

Q. Was it an enjoyable race for you as it was for us?

LH: It was absolutely, every inch of the race, every second, was incredibly enjoyable. I love being able to fight with different drivers and have the battles and have them at their best. I really felt that today. Whilst the tyres were going off on some of the cars I felt they were really performing and driving very well to defend their position, so it made that even more exciting.

Q. Sebastian, there was only one retirement. Can I ask you about traffic. Was it really busy out there?

SV: As usual I would say. The track is fairly long so it spreads out, but it depends which cars you talk about. There are some cars you come across a bit more often than others so it wasn't too busy.

Q. After your run of wins is second a disappointment?

SV: To be honest I don't think so. I have not seen all that happened but from the bit that I saw I think there is a very important lesson to be learnt today. The strategy that I picked was not the one that was meant to be the best but these things happen. You never know until you cross the line. If the race is a little bit shorter, if the tyres are holding, we are talking two laps every stint holding together a little bit more, then it could be different. But in the end I was struggling a lot. You just wait to turn the car around, wait to get on power as you haven't got much tyres left. It was quite a nice fight with Lewis, twice down the long straight I was able to just stay ahead and also for the next corner but I saw that there were seven laps to go so not much that I could do. To be honest I was quite surprised by his move into turn seven. I think he did a very good there and surprised me. Congratulations to them. I think we have given it our best and I don't see second today as a disappointment. Mark proved the car was very quick today. For us with a different strategy you cannot always show everything you have. First stint I was very happy. Even though we lost the start, being third, I had the feeling I could have gone a bit longer but for strategy reasons you pit earlier. But all in all we are happy with second. First was not meant to be so second is the best we could do today.

Q. Looking at the start, did you use KERS at the start?

SV: I did, but to be honest, my initial launch was not 100 per cent. I probably had problems to really start going; you feel that inside the car. It's hard to wait then and I was probably a bit too aggressive later on. You can't use KERS straight away, you have to wait until you reach 100kph, so I saw that I immediately lost a position to Jenson, which wasn't nice and then Lewis behind. I tried to defend hard into turn one, but at some point you have to give up and let the guy go. As I said, in general, the fight with him today was very fair. It was quite entertaining and good fun from that side.

Q. Mark, a phenomenal drive all the way up from 18th on the grid. Was it enjoyable for you?

MW: It was obviously a very interesting Grand Prix for me. We decided to get rid of the hard tyre in the first stint because we knew we were going to be in a bit of traffic. That worked out well, the guys made the best decision there to... it was their call to start on the prime and that worked out well. Well, I went off the track in turn one, I was struggling with the tyre and I thought "my God, this day is getting difficult" so I just kept my head down and focused on the next corner to give it everything. The guys did a good job in the pit stops; the first one was not the best, but after that they did a very, very good job. I got a bit lucky today - we didn't have so much yesterday, but hey, look, I'll take as much as I can get. I still had to do a little bit of driving today so it wasn't too bad, so thanks to the guys.

Q. And a fair amount of racing; you could have done with a few more retirements rather than one, couldn't you?

MW: Absolutely. I was looking for more yellow flags, a few more retirements, a couple of Vodafone cars pulled over but nothing, no yellow flags, I had to pass everybody. Yeah, I really earned it today, I think. I think the DRS position was pretty good for the race, in terms of overtaking. Maybe we need to look at top gear for the sport, to get that right between low and high fuel, because sometimes it's hard. We have DRS but we're on the limiter. The DRS, basically, sometimes doesn't work because you have the wrong top gear, it's the same for everyone. So anyway, we learned quite a bit today, a great result for the team, second and third. Congratulations to Lewis, they got the race.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Wang Wenfei - Titan Sports) Sebastian, you were leading and I wonder if you remember what the team told you on the radio on lap 29, and are you going to change the nickname of your car to get more luck in the race?

SV: Whether I remember on lap 29 what the team told me over the radio? And if I'm still happy with the name of the car? No, I think we have to keep our feet on the ground. I do. We've had three races, we've finished first, first and second. There's not a lot of room for improvements. Obviously, today, we could have been one step better but Lewis and McLaren were too strong and not within reach for us, with the strategy that we used today. I'm very happy. To be honest, with the radio, I have no clue what I was told because some bits I heard, other bits I didn't. As I said, I think they asked some questions, didn't get any answer and the other way around. Sometimes it worked. Fortunately, the pit board was always there, and looking for the pit stops, I got the call to box. But these days, with the racing that we have, it's quite important to have the communications and if one step doesn't work it's not really a pleasure. As I said, I'm happy with the name of the car. She behaves well.

Q.(Michael Schmidt – Auto, Moto und Sport) Sebastian, if you had been first at the start, would you have done a three-stop strategy and secondly, what did you think when, at the first pit stop, Jenson Button tried to park in your spot?

SV: If we could have stayed ahead at the start I think the race could have been different, probably not the first two or three laps but after that I felt quite comfortable in the position that I was. On the other hand, you obviously need to remember that Jenson, who was leading at that stage, is not able to use the DRS. I was always fairly close to Lewis and it is around half a second that you gain just by doing that. But as I said earlier, I had the feeling that I could have gone longer but there was no point, for strategy reasons. So, if we would have stayed ahead, we would probably have been able to pull a gap and then react to the people behind, too, and then maybe it would have been a bit more clear to us – what to do, two stops or three stops. The first time I came in I was fairly close to Jenson, obviously he was the race leader. I just got past Lewis on the back straight and came in to pit and I thought “what's going on”, because I looked at my box, but I have to say, I stayed quite calm. He pulled over and into my slot, so I was just hoping for the front jack man to react and to indicate to him to keep going, you're wrong. I lost a little bit of time because I waited, I didn't want to stop then and then go again. Fortunately, Jenson realised and I could do my pit stop. It's not easy for the guys, as I said earlier, it's very easy to lose the rhythm, wrong car and imagine if they've changed the tyres. Then it's a big mess and I have to go one spot further to McLaren and ask them: 'hello'. If I would have come in at the same time with Lewis and if he was supposed to get his new set it would have been nice, but that way, no way.

LH: I would have got tyres.

SV: From my team or from…

LH: Yeah, yeah, from your team.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, how much does the KERS affect your result today?

SV: We had some trouble in the race and for the majority of the race, unfortunately, we had to do without KERS, so the first stint was fine but then we lost it fairly early after that. Yes, it's a big hit, obviously. Here you have the long straight, the back straight, where it has a big effect, so it surely doesn't help if you try to pull away.

Q. (Edd Straw – Autosport) Sebastian and Mark, obviously the KERS problems have been there during the first three races: how important is it that the team gets these problems sorted out as soon as possible, especially with McLaren getting stronger by the race?

MW: Yeah, it's a key component in Formula One these days, mate, so it's completely obvious that we want to address it as soon as possible. McLaren have a huge amount of experience with Mercedes from 2009 and they're doing a good job of it, and that's not an excuse, it means that we have to work harder, we have to work as cleverly as we can and as fast as we can. Fortunately, we now have a bit of a break, so it will be a clear focus for us in terms of durability and consistency and also understanding the system. It's not only a performance thing but it's also incredibly disrupting in the garage for… my car was rebuilt about four times this weekend. It makes it so much harder for them in terms of making mistakes, when you open a car up and put it back together all the time, it's not easy. We have awesome guys on the case. As I say, with the limited experience we have, that's the way it is and we're still going OK in the Constructors' Championship, I think, so let's regroup, get to Turkey and work hard on it.

Q. (Dan Knutson – National Speedsport News) Mark, a mega race, tons of passes, a bunch of fastest laps, does this make your top 10 list?

MW: It's a different type of racing, Dan. There were some phenomenal races even when you drive for smaller teams, but today worked out for me. I had a good feeling from the middle part of the race to 60-70 per cent of the way through the race that things were starting to come to us, so it's easy to sit here and say yeah, it was phenomenal, top-three drive, overdone, rah rah rah, but in the end, that's my job, mate, isn't it? You've just got to (get your) head down, arse up and get into it – so that's what I did.

Q. (Stephane Barbe – L'Equipe) Lewis, could you describe your move on Jenson?

LH: Ummm. I don't remember it. I can't remember it. I'm in a daze right now. Where did I overtake him? First corner. Yeah, I remember now. I'm not joking. Jenson seemed to… I think it was on our last or second stint and basically I was able to catch him. I had my new tyres which, as I said in qualifying, I was able to save and they just seemed to hold on a little bit longer than Jenson's, so I was able to close the gap and I knew that I had a pit stop coming up, so I was able to push quite hard in those last few laps and I was very, very good on the brakes into turn 14, very close on the way up to turn 16 and I was able to get a real good tow from him out of the last corner. I'm not sure whether he expected me to go on the inside there into turn one but, fortunately, he left me enough space and I was able to capitalise on that and he put up a fair fight but there was nowhere really for him to go, because I was fully up alongside him. It was a great move and a great little battle. As I said, just with everyone generally, I had really good fights with everyone. None of them made it easy and that's the kind of racing I love, so I think that's why it feels even better than perhaps it's felt in the past.

Q.(Michael Schmidt – Auto, Moto und Sport) Lewis, would you say that the tyres saved yesterday were the key to your race win today?

LH: I don't think that was the only thing. I think all my tyres were in good condition. I think it's always a combination of things but that definitely did help. Without that, I wouldn't have overtaken Jenson. It would have been hard to get close enough. But, obviously, I had quite a lot of key moments through the stints in which I needed to really maximise and I think today… in some races you're able to maximise and things just go the way you want it to go and then in some other races, some parts of it will go well and then one part you're a bit unfortunate. I had a close coming together with Pérez, I think, at turn one, I think it was. I was coming out of the pits and he cut across and touched my wing, I think, or my tyre. I thought I had a flat spot or a flat tyre but otherwise, just cool fighting.

Q. (Bo Zhao – Wenhuibao) Lewis, there is an interesting phenomenon in Shanghai in that there are seven champions here. Not one seems to have been able to repeat their victory here, but you have broken that deadlock. How do you value that? This time you see more and more fans coming to watch the race; do you want to say something to them?

LH: Absolutely, and I think that's a good point. Coming into this weekend and coming here, every year I've come here since 2007, I've come here and I've had the fans, who are just incredible. While the grandstands aren't as full as we would like, perhaps, but every time I arrive at the airport, I've got fans standing there waiting. I think it started off with maybe one or two at the beginning and each year it gets a little bit more. Their support is just incredible and you go back to the hotel, they might be outside the restaurant, they're back at the hotel when you come from the restaurant, they're there before you leave in the morning and when you come back, it's absolutely unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it. I've had great letters that are read each night from several of the fans that give me a letter outside, and also gifts. Every day, I spend a little bit of time with them, try to give as much time to them. But that gives energy to me. They've not been overbearing or anything, they've been really supportive but that's also the same of my fans around the world, I'm so appreciative of the support we get. It makes a big difference. I don't know how it is for everyone but definitely for me. In my long answer, I was trying to say that this weekend some of the fans said “can you make it two?” and I said: “I will do absolutely everything I can” but obviously I was on P3, it was going to be a very tough race, but you can never ever imagine a race like today and what happened throughout the race and even before the race, so I feel very, very blessed to be sitting here, very, very happy.[/spoiler]

Red Bull KERS situation update:

Red Bull Racing plans an upgrade of its KERS for the Turkish Grand Prix, as it hopes that the changes will prevent a repeat of the issues that have dogged the team in the early races of the campaign.

Both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have encountered problems with their KERS at every race held so far this season - with the issues almost certainly playing a part in preventing Vettel extending his winning streak in China last weekend.

And although the team still has a number of issues to overcome before it can be confident it has got on top of the KERS problems, team principal Christian Horner says that he is optimistic about the work being done.

"We have got another upgrade of KERS coming for Turkey," he explained. "It is getting better and better as we get more understanding of the system and more mileage on it.

"So I am confident that the niggly issues that we have with it, we have fixes in the pipeline."

Red Bull Racing's KERS problems are believed to be related to cooling issues of its in-house battery system – which has been packaged extremely tightly so as not to compromise the car's aerodynamics.

The team is also not as experienced in the running of KERS as other outfits, having not raced the device in 2009 and only fitting it to this year's car for the latter stages of winter testing.

Webber said after the race in China that it was important the team got a grip on the KERS issues as soon as possible.

"It's a key component in Formula 1 these days, mate, so it's completely obvious that we want to address it as soon as possible," he said. "McLaren have a huge amount of experience with Mercedes from 2009 and they're doing a good job of it, and that's not an excuse, it means that we have to work harder, we have to work as cleverly as we can and as fast as we can.

"Fortunately, we now have a bit of a break, so it will be a clear focus for us in terms of durability and consistency and also understanding the system. It's not only a performance thing but it's also incredibly disrupting in the garage for... my car was rebuilt about four times this weekend. It makes it so much harder for them in terms of making mistakes, when you open a car up and put it back together all the time, it's not easy.

"We have awesome guys on the case. As I say, with the limited experience we have, that's the way it is and we're still going okay in the Constructors' Championship, I think, so let's regroup, get to Turkey and work hard on it."

Williams technical director Sam Michael says that changes 'will' be made to the organisation to turn around its disappointing start to the season - and he has not ruled out moving to a different role or leaving the outfit totally if that is what is needed.

The former title-winning outfit is enduring the worst start to a season in its Formula 1 history, with neither Rubens Barrichello nor Pastor Maldonado having scored a point in the first three races of the campaign.

And although the team is optimistic that a major upgrade package for the Turkish Grand Prix will improve its fortunes, Michael says that lessons from what has happened will be taken on board and an overhaul of its structure will take place over the next few weeks.

"I think the job that we have done this year clearly is not good enough," Michael told AUTOSPORT.

"There are lots of different reasons why. But either way, whatever team you are, I can easily see that where we are at the moment is not good enough and that falls down to me. So, we are currently reviewing that inside Williams – I am contributing to that and I am happy to do what the team wants me to do, to an extent.

"What I would not be happy with doing would be not changing anything – even myself. Even if everyone said everything is perfect, I know it is not. So, I am not happy with the job that we have done as a group. I would review that anyway – including myself. I don't exclude myself from any of that.

"I, as technical director, have chosen the technical team that works for me – the aero team, the design team, the operations group, the vehicle dynamics, the KERS guys. They are all people that I have chosen to put in those positions, so if it doesn't work then it is my responsibility. That is what we are in the middle of at the moment."

When asked if the comments about his own personal role meant he was eyeing a change of responsibilities, Michael said: "I don't know yet. We haven't really finalised that, and it will come down to what the team wants really. And myself as well – and what I think is best for the team.

"Obviously the team has to decide what it wants for itself and I will be part of that process, and then also I have to make a decision whether I think that is good for the team in terms of whatever I do."

He added: "We all have contracts and I have a contract until the end of this season anyway. So regardless of what happened – whether any restructuring meant that I left Williams or not, I would not leave Williams before the end of the year because I will stick to my contract.

"But in terms of going through that process, I am pretty open-minded at the moment. But open-minded to the extent that we have to make some big changes, because what we have got at the moment going on is not working and it needs change."

Although keen to push on with a restructuring – which could also extend to senior management and would likely involve not only a reshuffling of staff but also the possible recruitment from outside – Michael says he is actually upbeat about what the team has in the pipeline for the next few races.

"Things can change very quickly in this sport," he said. "You would never have thought at the last Barcelona test that McLaren were going to win a grand prix in the next month, and they have done.

"It is because there has been a big change of rules, and there are a lot of different designs out there in terms of exhaust systems and rear wings. As they gravitate towards each other over the next couple of races, it will make a difference. So I am pretty hopeful."

Ferrari does not expect a quick fix to its ongoing car woes, with the team admitting that it still does not have answers for the wind tunnel/track correlation issues that are the root of its problems.

The Maranello-based outfit has been baffled about why some development updates fitted to its car since the final pre-season test have not produced the increase in downforce that wind tunnel figures suggest they should.

Investigations will continue at Maranello this week to address the issue - and until the team has answers it makes it hard for it to design news parts for the car that can bring it the downforce that it requires to match Red Bull Racing and McLaren.

With the team's poor qualifying form highlighted again in China, team principal Stefano Domenicali is bracing himself for several weeks' works to try and get on top of the problems his outfit is facing.

When asked about the progress of the correlation between wind tunnel and on-track testing, Domenicali said: "That is the most important thing, for sure.

"If you look back, this is where we need to work hard. The performance of the car is still not there, even if the race is different from qualifying.

"I am a pragmatic guy, and I am expecting a big push from the guys back home, the engineers and the people. But I know it is not a short-term job.

"We need to react and I am sure the people at home want to show, I would say, to all of us what we want to do. I am not expecting a miracle in Turkey, because I think it will take longer.

"But it is the right approach in order to make sure that we can close the gap that is in qualifying not acceptable for sure."

Ferrari appeared to be in a strong position to fight for a podium finish in China, but Felipe Massa was unable to look after his tyres enough in the closing stages and faded to finish sixth.

Speaking about the result, Domenicali said: "Of course the disappointment of the result is there, we cannot say it different, but we need to analyse the race.

"I know there is a lot of dispute – whether it was right to be on a two-stop or a three-stop. If you look at the gaps that we have with the first six cars, they are so close so a little thing can change the end of the race.

"In the case of Fernando, he had the misfortune to attack a lot of laps Michael and that destroyed the tyres at that stage and he had to manage to the end.

"With Felipe his first two stints were really good, the same pace as all the cars in front, and he arrived within one second of Vettel. But in the last part of the hard tyres, they dropped away much more than we were expecting."

3 weeks until Turkey now.

Starvinho · April 21, 2011

Renault driver Robert Kubica to leave hospital soon

Renault driver Robert Kubica says he will leave the Italian hospital where he has been recovering from serious injuries "very soon".

Kubica suffered a partially severed right hand and fractures in his right leg and arm when he crashed during a rally in February.

"I will leave hospital very soon," Kubica, 26, said. "I don't have a precise date but I hope within 10 days.

"I am starting to feel a lot better. My strength and weight are increasing."

Good news

Lineker · April 21, 2011

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone says the sport in not for sale following reports that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is in talks over acquiring control of grand prix racing.

"It's rubbish," Ecclestone told the Telegraph Sport. "The sport is not for sale."

Sky News reported on Tuesday evening the News Corp had been in preliminary talks over the purchase of F1, with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim also linked to the deal by forming a consortium with News Corp.

The networks said the talks were at an "embryonic" stage at the moment.

The report also says that News Corp could "decide not to attempt to acquire a direct stake in F1 but instead bid for the broadcast rights".

According to the Reuters news agency, News Corp has had no contact with F1's current owner CVC so far.

The private equity firm purchased SLEC - Formula 1's holding company - back in 2006.

Stay clear Murdoch!!

Robert Kubica is set to leave hospital within the next 10 days to begin the next phase of the rehabilitation process that he hopes will get him back into Formula 1.

The Pole has been at the Santa Corona hospital in Italy since the rally crash in February that left him with serious arm and leg injuries.

Speaking to the official Renault F1 website on Thursday, Kubica said that he intends to return home to Monaco soon - before moving to the Formula Medicine clinic in Italy to continue his recovery.

"I am starting to feel a lot better now. My recovery is moving in the right direction: my strength and weight are increasing day on day and as a result I will leave the Santa Corona hospital very soon," he said. "I don't have a precise date as yet but I hope to be able to leave within the next 10 days.

"The mobility of my hand is limited but this is pretty normal in this kind of situation, because the connected arm muscles are still very weak due to the long period of immobility. Things are definitely improving day by day."

He added: "As soon as I leave hospital, I'll head to my home in Monaco for a short period of rest. Then I'll move to Dr. Ceccarelli's facilities in Italy where I will start a deep rehabilitation program and a preliminary soft training programme. The two programmes will gradually cross over based on the speed of my recovery."

Kubica has said that he has kept in touch with his Renault outfit throughout the opening weekends of the season – and he is hopeful that the team will continue to improve on its strong early form.

"They are sending me the race reports so I can remain up to date and fully informed, as if I were there at the tracks. Eric Boullier is also in constant contact, keeping up to date with my general condition.

"There is no doubt that it's been a strong start to the season. The potential of the car, which I already noticed in the February Valencia test, seems to be confirmed. As usual, it's now important that the development done in Enstone continues to produce consistent updates for maintaining this level of performance. The guys did a great job with this car and I'm sure they'll continue to improve."

When asked if he had a message for fans, Kubica said: "Well, just continue to enjoy the F1 show even though I'm not there at the moment. From my side, I'll try to use my difficult experience to come back as strong as I possibly can."

Fantastic news for Robert. He sounds really positive and I'm positive we'll see him back at the wheel for 2012.

Team Lotus has been linked to a tie-up deal with sportscar manufacturer Caterham, with an announcement about a takeover possible as early as next week.

The Hingham-based outfit has announced that it is to hold a major press conference at Duxford Airfield next week - although it has not confirmed any further details.

In an invite sent to the press, the team stated that the media event would be "an incredibly exciting announcement about the future of the team".

Sources have revealed to AUTOSPORT that Team Lotus could be on the verge of a takeover of Caterham - which if it came off would provide obvious marketing and technical opportunities between the F1 operation and the road car business.

The link with Caterham could also in theory give the F1 team another option in terms of a future brand name for the outfit, if it opts to move away from the 'Team Lotus' moniker on the back of the dispute with Group Lotus.

Team Lotus declined to comment on the Caterham speculation when contacted by AUTOSPORT on Thursday.

Next week's press event will also likely come before there is any firm answer from the British courts about the ongoing Lotus naming dispute.

It had originally been hoped that the judge could issue his verdict as early as this week, but sources suggest that there will now be a delay for several weeks – meaning the issue will not be settled until next month.

Hopefully this isn't a sign of Team Lotus fearing that they may lose the court case... I have a soft spot for them!

Retired double world champion Mika Hakkinen believes that Sebastian Vettel is driving with more confidence in 2011 now that he has a drivers' title under his belt.

Vettel has won two of the first three races and finished second in last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix, which has given him a 19-point lead in this year's championship over Lewis Hamilton.

Hakkinen, who secured back-to-back titles for McLaren in 1998 and '99, says that the assurance that being a world champion brings will assist Vettel in his quest to emulate that achievement.

"Of course the world championship gives you confidence," said the Finn in an exclusive interview he gave to AUTOSPORT during an appearance at Goodwood, where he was working as an ambassador for drinks company Johnnie Walker's 'Step Inside the Circuit' campaign.

"It really gives you confidence. You know you have done it. You've won a title. It's no longer a weight on your shoulders. So now you can focus on the details.

"Then it becomes very enjoyable, you start calculating a little bit, it is really good fun. Other guys are suspecting and wondering how, but you know exactly how it works.

"That allows your pressure level, what you can take in terms of pressure, to be much higher than others. Because you understand things that other people have yet to experience.

The 42-year-old cautioned however that being world champion comes with the price of more demands being made outside the cockpit - but added that the sport is now very different to the one he quit at the end of 2001.

"The amount of marketing work I did after '98 was just horrendous," he said. "That is guaranteed if you win the championship. I think for me it was harder because I had so much work. After '98 there was all the marketing work, all the testing work.

"You are not allowed to test [mid-season] these days, but marketing work is a bit different than it used to be so you burn much more physical and mental power through that."

Read the full interview with Mika Hakkinen here.

Lineker · April 22, 2011

According to the Guardian, Turkish media is reporting that there won't by a Turkish Grand Prix from 2012, as Bernie wants to double their race payment fee from $13m to $26m. This years race is the last on the current contract.

Rich · April 24, 2011

Good, I have never liked the Turkish GP

Lineker · May 1, 2011

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix organisers plan to widen the entry to the main hairpin and radically alter the cambering on another corner as part of changes to improve overtaking at its Yas Marina circuit, AUTOSPORT has learned.

With the track having come under fire for a lack of passing last year, race chiefs have agreed to revamp some of the corners to improve matters for this November's penultimate round of the Formula 1 championship.

Although the final details of what is being done have not been confirmed, sources have revealed to AUTOSPORT that plans are close to being signed off for three main changes. They are:

* the Turn 5/6 chicane and entry to the bottom Turn 7 hairpin will be made much wider, so as to allow more opportunity for drivers to take a different line into and through the corner.

* the negative camber on the exit of the Turn 9 chicane will be reprofiled to make it a banked corner - therefore giving drivers the chance to take a wide line and run around the outside of a rival.

* the slow left handers at Turns 13/14 will be made into one sweeping corner to try and improve the flow of the circuit near the end of the lap.

Although the evidence from the first three races suggest that F1's new rules are already throwing up more overtaking opportunities than last year, the Abu Dhabi tweaks have been welcomed by drivers.

Michael Schumacher said at the Chinese Grand Prix: "We're very happy to hear that Abu Dhabi, after building a very good track, is open to make further changes in order to see if we can find some guidelines for the future that may improve the overtaking situation. So, I think it's a good step in the right direction, to see what will be done, what effect it will have.

"Nevertheless, if you look at this year's competition in general, it does offer a lot more overtaking possibilities. I think that in that respect, in terms of spectacle and interest in the sport, it has risen extremely."

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has been urged not to reinstate the Bahrain Grand Prix to the world championship calendar until the Gulf State's political situation has returned to normal.

With ongoing conflict between the authorities and pro-democracy activists, and the island under a State of Emergency, there already appears little chance of this year's Bahrain GP getting rescheduled.

However, race organisers had until May 1 to inform the FIA whether or not they want the race reinstated on this year's calendar, following the calling-off of the season opener on the eve of the campaign because of political trouble.

With that deadline now less than one week away, political activists have written to Ecclestone, asking him to hold back on bringing F1 back to Bahrain until the current situation has improved.

In an open letter to Ecclestone, published as part of a Facebook campaign, the 'Youth of the 14 February Revolution' wrote: "We are addressing to you this open letter publicly regarding the organization of Bahrain Grand Prix, and we, citizen of Bahrain, and human rights supporters of the world, are asking you to consider the challenges to organize what should be a happy sporting event in the middle of a country under siege and martial law, surrounded by tanks and military forces, while the population is being reduce to silence, killed, tortured, etc...

"Not mentioning the difficult climatic conditions, and the fact that organizing a motor sport festival in the middle of a despotic crackdown on the population, wouldn't be well understood and accepted worldwide.

"Also, in support of the population of Bahrain, we're asking you reconsider hosting Grand Prix of Bahrain until basic human rights and freedom are restored, and, if you wish, to issue a letter stating that the Grand Prix cannot, and will not, be organized in Bahrain until basic human rights and freedom are restored, and the repression is over. With your permission, we will display this letter of support on Facebook and other networks to show the solidarity of the Formula 1 sporting industry with the democratic and freedom aspirations of the Bahraini people!

"We thank you very much for your support and wish to see the Grand Prix in Bahrain soon, in a free and democratic atmosphere to which you would have contributed."

F1 teams have deliberately stayed out of the situation regarding Bahrain, and are awaiting news from both Ecclestone and the FIA about the future plans for the race.

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone is willing to give Bahrain Grand Prix organisers more time to decide whether or not they can hold their race this year, ahead of this weekend's deadline laid down by the FIA.

In the wake of the political trouble that caused the season-opener to be called off, the FIA told Bahrain chiefs that they have until May 1 to inform it if they feel they can hold an F1 event later this year.

But with that deadline looming, and the security situation in Bahrain still serious, Ecclestone has now said that there is a chance the Gulf state could be offered a few more weeks to sort out what they want to do.

"We need to wait a little bit to see exactly how progress is made," Ecclestone was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency. "I suppose we'd be safe by early June or something like that."

He added: "Things can change in a couple of weeks...so you don't know. All of a sudden everything might be peaceful in a month's time and they are happy to run the event and so we are happy to be there."

The Bahrain Grand Prix authorities say they look forward to having Formula 1 back "in the very near future", but stopped short of committing to being able to host the race later in 2011.

The deadline for the Sakhir organisers to inform the FIA of whether it will be possible to reschedule their postponed F1 race this season expires tomorrow, although Bernie Ecclestone hinted earlier this week that he would like to see Bahrain given more time.

The race should have opened the season in mid-March, but was postponed amid the political tensions in the country.

Although that situation is still ongoing, Bahrain International Circuit chairman Zayed Rashid Alzayani said in a statement today that conditions in Bahrain were improving.

"We gratefully acknowledge the understanding of Formula One Management and the FIA in what have been difficult times," he said. "We also thank the continued support of the international motorsport community and Formula 1 fans around the world.

"Clearly our national priority is to find a resolution to the difficulties that the kingdom of Bahrain has experienced. The national situation has moved on in a positive manner, the situation is evolving all the time; our day-to-day life is gradually improving under the current State of National Safety.

"Bahrain's grand prix is a time of celebration and hosting the race is a source of great pride for Bahrain and Bahrainis. It is a showcase to the world and we look forward to welcoming the teams and drivers and everyone involved in Formula 1 back to Bahrain in the very near future."

Ecclestone added in the statement that he remained convinced F1 could make a successful return to Bahrain, though he also refrained from saying whether this would be in 2011 or 2012.

"Bahrain's commitment to Formula 1 has been clear from the very outset," said Ecclestone.

"While obviously the kingdom has had to put its national affairs first I have never been in any doubts that restoring the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix has been of paramount importance.

"In eight years with my relationship with Bahrain I have always been confident that they will produce something special."

The newly-constructed track that will host India's inaugural Formula 1 race will carry the name Buddh International Circuit.

The title was confirmed during a launch event in India today at which the track's logo was unveiled.

"The name 'Buddh International Circuit' has been chosen with reference to the area where the racetrack is situated - Gautam Budh Nagar district (near Greater Noida). Because of its location, naming the circuit 'Buddh International Circuit' was a logical choice for the company," said a statement from the organisers.

The 3.194-mile, 16-turn track will hold its first grand prix on 30 October this year.

Team Lotus Enterprises has confirmed the purchase of British sportscar maker Caterham Cars, as reported by AUTOSPORT last week.

The deal will enable the lightweight sportscar manufacturer to "expand its brand profile and product family," according to Team Lotus.

"Caterham has a unique place at the heart of the motoring world," said Team Lotus owner Tony Fernandes. "As well as being proudly and staunchly British, it has an enviable and uniquely unblemished reputation within the industry for performance, handling and engineering excellence.

"Caterham Cars has remained wholly faithful to Colin Chapman's philosophy of 'less is more', and the DNA of the original Seven can still be traced to the newest additions to Caterham's product offering.

"It is already a successful business with sales across Europe, Japan, Australia and the Middle East, and under the guidance of the existing management team, we now have all the ingredients and the launch pad to further evolve that spirit and take Caterham to new exciting horizons with innovative products and greater global brand exposure."

The announcement comes before a decision from the British courts about the ongoing Lotus naming dispute, although there was no mention of a rumoured name change in the statement.

The team said that the purchase will signal the continued development of its famous Seven brand, using F1 technology.

Caterham Cars' managing director Ansar Ali added: "This is yet another exciting chapter in the Caterham story. Until now, the resources Caterham has had at its disposal have, naturally, limited the exposure of the Caterham driving experience and the legendary Seven has had to rely almost entirely on its remarkable reputation and legacy.

"We will remain entirely true to the philosophy that we, as custodians of one man's motoring concept, have protected for nearly 40 years.

"However, the acquisition of the company by Team Lotus Enterprises will allow our existing management team to take Caterham's core spirit of pure driving enjoyment to a hitherto un-served audience.

"While the Seven will now have the global springboard it deserves and will continue to be evolved yet further, we also have the opportunity to expand the Caterham family beyond the Seven and SP/300.R and breathe new life into our uniquely respected brand and mature it into a truly global business."

Team Lotus boss Tony Fernandes says he has no immediate plans to rebrand his F1 outfit as Caterham, despite buying the car company and revealing he will rename his GP2 squad.

The Hingham-based outfit confirmed the purchase of Caterham during an event at the Duxford Airfield on Wednesday, but gave no further details about rumoured plans to rename the squad.

The link-up with Caterham was believed to be an option for the future brand name for the outfit, if it opts to move away from 'Team Lotus' as a result of its dispute with Group Lotus.

Fernandes said, however, that there was no decision on the team's name yet, and that he is hoping both Caterham and Lotus can stay together.

"I don't know yet, to be honest," Fernandes told AUTOSPORT about a possible rebranding of the team. "I am waiting to see what happens with the case, and all these sort of things. But an ideal scenario would be a marriage of the two.

"The ideal world is both. People have said that Lotus has its own F1 team, but so what? There is Manchester United and Manchester City.

"People will come to understand what each brand stands for, and say - we want this, or we want that. It is no different to me, and I really hope we can keep both."

Fernandes, who tried to establish a link-up with Group Lotus for his F1 team, said the Caterham route now looked easier and more attractive.

"Obviously we thought Group Lotus was an unpolished diamonds in many ways, and with an F1 team we could have done many things together," he said.

"That didn't transpire but it is funny how in life if you go down one road, it gets blocked heavily, and so you switch to another road. But then, in fact, the other road looks a lot nicer.

"I believe that if you are doing things well, you give it the right attention and you have the right people, luck will find a way for you. And certainly, fortune favoured the brave here - and if I was to redo things, I would have much rather gone down this route to be honest.

"It is a simpler, easier one. It is a profitable business, it doesn't require lots and lots of capital and the F1 teams adds a lot to it to grow the business. Without sounding like a cliche, it is a marriage made in heaven in many shapes and forms."

He denied he was buying Caterham because he suspects he will lose the court case.

"Many people are saying, are you doing this because you are going to lose Team Lotus? That is not the case."

Fernandes also confirmed his GP2 team, currently named AirAsia, is going to undergo a name change if the regulations allow it.

The GP2 season starts next week in Turkey.

"I can confirm pretty clearly that there will be a Caterham GP2 Team," he said. "I have to check with the regulations, rename the team 'Caterham' and AirAsia will become a sponsor.

"So AirAsia Caterham. You've asked me that, and that is my immediate reaction. But when we do it and how we do it, I don't know yet."

- Jenson Button says he is ready to commit the rest of his Formula 1 career to McLaren, ahead of the opening of talks later this summer to discuss a new contract with the team. The former world champion joined the Woking-based outfit on a three-year deal from the start of 2010, and it is understood the team wants to begin discussions to extend his stay over the next few months.

Turkish Grand Prix chiefs insist the door is not fully closed on sorting out a deal to secure the future of the race, despite a reluctance by the government to bankroll a big hike in fees.

Organisers of the Istanbul Park event have been told by the government that the $26.5 million (USD) fee proposed by Bernie Ecclestone - double what it costs up until now - is too much.

But although that prompted speculation that the race would be axed from next year's calendar, organisers expect talks to continue for several months yet to try and see if an agreement can be reached.

Murat Yalcintas, president of the Istanbul chamber of commerce, has told AUTOSPORT that no final decision has been made yet.

"This year will be a turning point in the future of the Turkish Grand Prix," he explained. "According to the results of these discussions, the Turkish GP may or may not continue.

"Both sides have not declared any official opinion yet. The only thing we can say is that Mr. Ecclestone insists on a deal of £26.5 million (USD) per year, and the Turkish government has not evaluated this proposal positively."

When asked in what timeframe he expected a decision to be made about the future of the event, Yalcintas said: "It is really impossible to give a certain date, because ultimately the F1 calendar has been announced at different dates in the past by FOA [Formula One Administration].

"But we estimate it will be officially declared between August and September of 2011. So, taking into account the current problems related to Bahrain, discussions may last until the end of this summer."

Yalcintas claimed that there were financial benefits from Turkey holding the F1 race, but said the country's economy was not dependent on it.

"Turkey has witnessed many global events in the last 30 years – and one of them is F1," he explained. "We are aware of the fact that achieving continuity in such global events is more important than adding new ones.

"Regarding local business, Formula 1 attracts most of the visitors from our neighbours, such as Greece, Bulgaria and other European countries. But it is difficult to say that there is an F1 economy."

Renault team principal Eric Boullier believes Formula 1 teams need to consider only what is best for the sport - rather than what suits their own interests – when it comes to deciding what to do about future engine rules.

Amid concerns from some teams that the move to 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engines from 2013 will lead to an unnecessary escalation in costs, and Bernie Ecclestone doubtful that the new power units are good for F1, there has been talk that the switch of engine formula could be delayed.

With opinions between teams on the matter split, even though the new rules are already written into the regulations, Boullier, who was recently voted vice-chairman of the Formula One Teams' Association, thinks that careful thought needs to put into sorting out where the sport goes from here.

"It is a complex debate, to be honest, and there is no easy answer," Boullier told AUTOSPORT. "Renault as a car manufacturer is willing to go for the new regulations, and yes we can understand that there are a couple of reluctant teams.

"Everybody has got their own arguments, and today every argument is valuable, so we still need to sit down and have a better understanding of the wishes of the manufacturers themselves, to make sure the right decision is made.

"The only thing we need to make sure, which is one of the reasons I wanted to get involved more [at FOTA], is that we need to think about F1 interests. That is the main thing – not personal interests."

The debate about the cost impact of the 2013 regulations comes against the backdrop of ongoing talks regarding amendments to the Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) – which limits team spending.

Although discussions to try and agree on fresh limits failed to reach a positive conclusion at this year's Malaysian Grand Prix, Boullier is confident the matter can get sorted soon.

"We all signed this agreement in Singapore [last year] so that means at one stage we agreed on something," he said. "So we have to get back to the basis of this agreement and push back to finalise it. I am quite confident we will be able to find something."

Formula 1 teams could opt for some 'alternative' strategies in next week's Turkish Grand Prix because of the expected high levels of tyre degradation.

That is the view of Sauber technical director James Key, who reckons that the challenging Istanbul circuit - which includes the punishing Turn 8 – will make tyre management key to the race.

"It will be another interesting event for the tyres, because the famous turn eight is one of the high speed corners of the year with the highest loading of the tyres," he explained. "Although we have seen some high speed corners at the last two events, I think this is by far another step beyond that.

"It will be interesting to see how well the tyres cope with that in terms of wear and degradation. This could result in some alternative strategies in the race, but we will not know until we get there... Tyre management could be the key to the weekend of the Turkish Grand Prix."

Sauber plans to evaluate some new developments to its car in Friday practice in Istanbul, but these are aimed for introduction later in the season rather than straightaway.

Kamui Kobayashi reckons that it is hard to predict just how tough tyre management is going to be before the teams do some running.

"Regarding tyre management, I find it difficult to predict how the situation will develop," said the Japanese. "The grip level at this circuit is normally very low, which means the cars tend to slide a lot. I believe it will be crucial to save the front tyres in particular so the wear is as low as possible."

Jarno Trulli is confident the FIA will do the right thing when it comes to deciding about the use of DRS at the Monaco Grand Prix - even though he believes keeping it on the cars for Monaco will be 'pointless'.

AUTOSPORT revealed last week that Formula 1's governing body is considering not allowing drivers to use DRS at Monaco because of safety concerns.

As well as there being minimal benefit from the moveable wing on the street circuit, drivers have expressed worries that it could be dangerous if they are forced to use it for a speed boost on tricky parts of the circuit - like through the famous Tunnel.

The FIA is due to discuss the matter with teams and drivers at next week's Turkish Grand Prix, with a final decision due to be made after the Istanbul weekend.

Trulli says he is comfortable that FIA race director Charlie Whiting fully understands the reservations that a number of drivers have expressed, and thinks that he will make the right call.

"We have discussed about the DRS," Trulli told AUTOSPORT. "At the moment the discussion with the FIA is very, very good. Charlie has been listening to us.

"We give Charlie our opinions because we drive the car, and he understands what our concerns are. Sometimes it is mainly on the safety side, and doesn't affect the new rules. We say what we think and then we say it is up to him. He takes our opinions.

"We are meeting nearly every race, apart from the normal briefing, to discuss about DRS and discuss about other things, and it is extremely positive I would say. The FIA has been doing a great job."

Trulli believes that as well as potential safety problems from drivers risking using the DRS on dangerous parts of the track to gain lap time, there was also a problem in the use of it leaving drivers with too much to do in the cockpit at such a difficult venue.

"At Monaco, to run with it is pointless," he said. "You won't use it for much of the straights, they are too short, and it will mean you will be spending too much time concentrating on the buttons – and that means you don't have enough room or time to think about other things.

"It is not a benefit and won't help you at all for overtaking, so I don't think there is any point to run it. This is my personal opinion – it is shared by other drivers, but it is not down to us to decide if we run it or not."

When asked if he felt there would be a gamble in trying to use it through the Tunnel, Trulli said: "Yes. Definitely, yes. You won't go through flat, so it is too much of a gamble. That is why I would prefer to not use it."

Formula One 2011

Recommended Posts

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

METALMAN

Starvinho

Rich

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Join the conversation

Recently Browsing 0 members

Important Information