Formula One 2012

[MJB]

Vettel out in Q2

Lewis will be at least 6th, but I don't even see that at the moment. Mercedes to take the front row I suspect, providing Rosberg doesn't fall apart again. However that'd be a false position for the Merc's due to their tyre wear.

[hugobomb]

The hell is Eddie Jordan wearing?

[Lineker]

The fuuuuck?

[MJB]

Mighty lap from Rosberg.

[EddieG]

Great, great lap. Loved that he's just standing there smiling now.

[hugobomb]

Sauber will be 3rd on the grid with Hamilton's penatly, they seem shockingly good so far this season.

[EddieG]

It's not that Sauber's doing great, just that Kobayashi is awesome.

[Gazz]

fap fap fap fap fap

[LUKIE]

She slept her way to a drivers seat.

[Katsuya]

To be fair, Perez beat Kamui clean in Q2, just Kobayashi really managed to pull it out in Q3.

No idea who'll win the race. Tempted to put a bet on Kamui and Kimi, to be honest, since I just can't imagine the pace of the Mercedes cars doing well in the race, whereas the Sauber genuinely seems quick in the race (and looks after its tyres).

BUT there's apparently rain forecast for tomorrow now, which means that it all goes out of the window. Although to be fair, that probably benefits Sauber more than anyone else when you look back at Malaysia.

[Lineker]

Rain is apparently likely indeed, according to @radarguruf1. Should liven things up. Sauber definitely worth a punt for sure!

Anyway, newsy bits:

Nico Rosberg claimed a maiden Formula 1 pole position for himself and the current version of the Mercedes team with a commanding performance in Chinese Grand Prix qualifying at Shanghai.

The German was a full half a second quicker than second-fastest Lewis Hamilton, as predictions of a spectacular Mercedes qualifying performance came true. Michael Schumacher will make it an all-Mercedes front row having qualified third fastest, for Hamilton's gearbox change penalty will drop his McLaren to seventh.

While one German celebrated a first ever pole, another had a disastrous result, as reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel could only manage 11th on the grid for Red Bull.

Rosberg had led a Mercedes one-two in Q2, and then blitzed his rivals early in Q3 with an unbeatable 1m35.121s. So confident was Rosberg that the time would hold for pole, he got out of his car and walked off to the weighing area while the rest of the top 10 pack tried in vain to improve their times and catch him.

Hamilton managed to get between the Mercedes in the times, even if he cannot do so on the grid.

His penalty will also move Kamui Kobayashi up to an amazing third place, as the Japanese driver emphasised Sauber's progress by setting the fourth quickest time.

On current form, Vettel had always seemed a long shot for a fourth consecutive Shanghai pole, but to fail to make the top 10 on the grid for the first time since Brazil 2009 was a major shock.

The double champion, running a different exhaust specification on his Red Bull to Mark Webber, was only 0.3s slower than his pacesetting team-mate in Q2, but that was the difference between first and 11th in the extraordinarily close session. Vettel had been gradually edged down the top 10 and ultimately pushed out by Romain Grosjean's Lotus, and though he was still on his final flying lap at the time, it was not quick enough to get Vettel back inside the cut.

A low-key session for Jenson Button and Webber saw the McLaren and Red Bull back in sixth and seventh in the times, behind Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus.

Malaysia combatants Sergio Perez (Sauber) and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) were together again as they led the way in Q1 after going for softs tyres, and qualified in close company once more in eighth and ninth, ahead of the second Lotus of Romain Grosjean. Felipe Massa was closer to Alonso's pace than of late, but will start 12th.

The second half of the grid will line up in neat team formation. The two Williams share row seven ahead of the two Force Indias, and while Jean-Eric Vergne did not get beyond Q1, he will still start alongside Toro Rosso team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

It was business as usual at the back, as Caterham led Marussia and HRT, with everyone now comfortably inside the 107 per cent margin.

Qualifying


Pos  Driver                Team                 Time          Gap   

 1.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m35.121s         

 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m35.626s  + 0.505

 3.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m35.691s  + 0.570

 4.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m35.784s  + 0.663

 5.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m35.898s  + 0.777

 6.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m36.191s  + 1.070

 7.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m36.290s  + 1.169

 8.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m36.524s  + 1.403

 9.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m36.622s  + 1.501

10.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        No time

Q2 cut-off time: 1m35.831s                                   Gap **

11.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m36.031s  + 0.331

12.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m36.255s  + 0.555

13.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m36.283s  + 0.583

14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m36.289s  + 0.589

15.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m36.317s  + 0.617

16.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m36.745s  + 1.045

17.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m36.956s  + 1.256

Q1 cut-off time: 1m36.933s                                    Gap *

18.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m37.714s  + 1.516

19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m38.463s  + 2.265

20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m38.677s  + 2.479

21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m39.282s  + 3.084

22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m39.717s  + 3.519

23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m40.411s  + 4.213

24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m41.000s  + 4.802


107% time: 1m42.931s

* Gap to quickest in Q1

** Gap to quickest in Q2[/code]


Nico Rosberg described taking his first Formula 1 pole position at his 111th attempt as 'fantastic'.


The 26-year-old German set the fastest time in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix - a 1m35.121s –which proved to be just under half a second faster than his nearest rival's best in Q3.


It was also Mercedes' first pole position as a manufacturer team since Juan Manuel Fangio took the top spot for the 1955 Italian Grand Prix.


"It went really well and it's a very special feeling," Rosberg said. "Now obviously l am looking forward to starting first and the race!


"The track was was cooling off, the temperatures were coming down, so the rear tyres started working better. We changed setup before the last run and I did a perfect lap."


Mercedes was always expected to be strong in qualifying for China, where the long straight plays to the advantages of its unique 'double DRS' system, and team-mate Michael Schumacher will line up alongside Rosberg on the front row when second-placed Lewis Hamilton's gearbox-change grid penalty is taken into account.


Rosberg admitted however that he is more concerned about the W03's race pace given its propensity to burn through tyres in long runs.


"It is clear in the race we have not been as quick as in qualifying, but we are making progress, we will try our best and work tonight and see what we can do with setup electronically and then make the most of it," he said.


"It is a great feeling, getting a good lap in at the end and it shows as a team we are moving forward. In the race we are not there yet but we are getting there, we won't make big jumps in a couple of weeks, it will take some time, but we are getting there.


"It's difficult to know how well we will go tomorrow, so let's wait and see."


Rosberg first lap in Q3 was that much faster than the opposition that in the end he only chose to do one flying lap, opting to sit out the final minutes as his rivals tried to better his time, but he said the decision was a sound one.


"We just decided to save another set of tyres," he added, "it was a good lap and saving a set was good for the race as the points are for the race not qualifying."


Michael Schumacher says he has finally got his hands on a car that allows him to enjoy the Shanghai circuit, after securing a spot on the front row for the Chinese Grand Prix.


The seven-time champion will start alongside Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, and reckons the performance had changed his opinion of Shanghai.


"If you don't have a balanced car it [shanghai] is a nightmare and probably this Silver Arrow is the first car that handles very good here," he said.


"So I have started to like the track a little bit more this year compared to the previous years."


Schumacher said that it was fairly obvious he was enjoying F1 much more now, having delivered his best qualifying performance since Japan 2006.


"It is natural when you are in difficulties you know what it needs to get out of that," he said.


"It needs patience and focus. That is what we all had and now we take the fruits from all the work and effort we put in. Naturally you are more happy at the front end, where we are right now."


Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn said celebrations over the squad's front row sweep for the Chinese Grand Prix would be tempered by an awareness that it had to deliver better race form on Sunday.


Although Mercedes has taken a big step forward in performance this year, with its innovative 'double DRS' system playing a role in its impressive qualifying race, it has fallen back in races after strong Saturday performances, and has only scored one point in 2012.


At Shanghai on Saturday, Nico Rosberg took a dominant pole position with a half-second cushion over the field. Team-mate Michael Schumacher was third fastest, but moves up to second on the grid thanks to Lewis Hamilton's penalty for a gearbox change.


"It was a fantastic achievement, but in the back of our mind we've got to put a race together tomorrow," Brawn told the BBC.


Brawn said Rosberg deserved huge credit for his performance and the margin of superiority. The German had been outqualified by Schumacher at 2012's first two races after holding the edge in single-lap pace for most of their time as team-mates so far.


"It was quite an exceptional lap by Nico," said Brawn. "He hasn't had a great first couple of races in that respect, and today we saw what he can do. The middle sector he did was just incredible."


The team boss hinted that both Mercedes could have gone faster still.


"We backed off once we saw that we weren't really under any threat because Lewis has got a penalty," Brawn said. "We wanted to try and save a set of tyres."


Lewis Hamilton has congratulated long-time rival Nico Rosberg on taking a maiden pole position in Formula 1.


Rosberg and Hamilton have raced against each other for over a decade, dating back to their karting days, and the McLaren driver was delighted to have qualified alongside his old rival despite the gearbox penalty that will prevent them sharing the front row on Sunday.


"Congratulations to Nico," said Hamilton, who will start seventh. "It's fantastic and I am proud of him.


"We grew up racing together and we dreamed of racing in F1. We were team-mates in 200 and friends before that. We are on the front row together but I have the penalty."


Rosberg's Mercedes team-mate, Michael Schumacher, admitted that he was not expecting his team to challenge for pole.


He hailed Rosberg's lap as "phenomenal".


"I didn't think we would fight for pole position and seeing what Nico could do was a big surprise for all of is," said Schumacher.


"It was a phenomenal laptime and I happy for him taking his first pole. It will also be the first front row of the proper Silvers Arrows."


Schumacher is wary about whether he and Rosberg will be able to convert their front row starting positions into results, but is hoping to have a straightforward race to see where the F1 W03 really is on race performance.


"It is a question mark if we can keep that position, but we will see what happens tomorrow," said Schumacher.


"We have a question of high fuel and tyre degradation. Hopefully it will be the first proper normal race and I can get to the end."


Kamui Kobayashi insists that he is not dreaming of fighting for victory in the Chinese Grand Prix, and says his goal remains to score as many points as possible.


Coming off the back of his Sauber team-mate Sergio Perez's near-win in Malaysia, Kobayashi qualified in a strong fourth position at Shanghai, but will start from third due to a grid penalty for Lewis Hamilton - picked up following a gearbox change.


The Japanese driver admitted he was delighted with the result, but insisted he is staying realistic for the race.


"I am very happy, the team did a great job," said Kobayashi. "For quite a while we have kept saying we need to improve our qualifying performance, and I think this was a clear improvement today.


"Apparently I will be starting from third position tomorrow because Lewis Hamilton had to change his gearbox. This grid position obviously means a lot of chances. However, I am not a dreamer and the target remains the same: score as many points as you can.


"We have a strong car, normally it is also good on tyres and I am looking forward to the race full of confidence."


Perez will also start the race in the top ten, having secured eighth position, and the Mexican said he was hoping for a better result.


"It is obviously a good qualifying result for our team," he said. "Personally I must admit I even hoped for more than P8. After the previous runs had been very promising, on the final lap in Q3, when I was on a fresh set of soft tyres, I suddenly had understeer.


"I don't know where this came from. In any case it will be a tough race tomorrow and I will give it my best."


Sebastian Vettel said he has no regrets about his decision to stick with Red Bull's old exhaust design, despite going out in Q2 for the first time in 43 races.


The world champion decided to use the old exhaust layout for the weekend, while his team-mate Mark Webber opted for the latest?-specification unit.


Vettel failed to make it into the top 10 in qualifying for the first time since the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix.


The German said he was happy with how he had performed during qualifying, but he conceded that his times were simply not quick enough.


"It's always easy to say this and that now, but I was happy with the car yesterday and that's why I decided to stay as we were," said Vettel.


"I was happy with the laps I had in qualifying. There were no mistakes, but they weren't quick enough. It's as easy as that.


"Yesterday I was happy with the car. We decided to stick with the current settings and I don't want to blame it on the car. Three times I did exactly the same lap, and three times it wasn't quick enough to make it into Q3."


Vettel admitted he was disappointed to be starting from so far back, but he reckons he still has a chance to put on a good performance in? the race.


"Obviously I'm not happy," he added. "As I said, I was pretty happy with the laps I had in Q2, but they weren't quick enough. We have to start the race from P11 and see what we can do tomorrow. Surely it makes it a bit harder, but not impossible to do a good race.


"I was pretty happy with the car today, but it was pretty close. Unfortunately we weren't able to take the final step. There's a lot of work to do, but there's a very long race tomorrow, which gives us lot of chances."


Team boss Christian Horner downplayed the difference between one exhaust layout and the other, saying the gap between Vettel and Webber was not necessarily down to it.


"Not necessarily. The characteristics are slightly different but it's hopefully suiting both drivers' different driving styles," Horner told Sky TV. "If you look at the first and second sectors there is absolutely nothing between them, so the difference seems to be in the third sector."


Fernando Alonso is under no illusions that Ferrari will have to improve its car drastically in order to stay in contention for the championship.


The Spanish driver is leading the standings after his win in Malaysia, but he could only qualify in ninth position ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, nearly 1.5 seconds off the pace.


The Ferrari driver concedes he is not thinking of the championship as his team's form is far from what he was hoping for in order to fight for victories.


Alonso admitted his car has 'big' problems with the aerodynamics, but he reckons that gives Ferrari hope that it can make big gains once it solves them.


"At the moment we all stay focused in the next race," said Alonso. "I think the championship is a target for Ferrari every year because of the history and the way the team is racing, with the passion to win. But obviously we are not stupid.


"We know we are far behind and we need to work. One second is a big gap to recover, but the car has some big problems in terms of aerodynamics which give us the optimism inside the team that we can recover, maybe not one second, but a lot of time if we put a couple of things that are not working in the right place.


"This is the first priority. Once we are happy with the car, we'll see what's the gap. At the moment it's too big because it doesn't work."


Alonso, who fended off Sauber's Sergio Perez to win in Malaysia, said he was not surprised by the pace of the Swiss squad after qualifying behind both the Mexican and his team-mate Kamui Kobayashi today.


"They were one of the quickest in winter testing. They were one of the quickest in Australia and maybe they deserved the win in Malaysia."


The Spaniard did beat world champion Sebastian Vettel in Saturday's session, and he said the German's position is the result of Red Bull not getting everything perfect now it does not have a big edge over its rivals.


"I think Red Bull is not a second in front of everybody, so the qualifyings and the races are more difficult," Alonso said. "You need to be perfect in everything. If some things don't go in the right way, the times are so close that it puts you out of Q3. And maybe this was one of those occasions."


Heikki Kovalainen expects Pastor Maldonado to be penalised for blocking during the opening part of Chinese Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday.


The Finn qualified 19th for Caterham, but believes he was delayed by the Williams driver, who he said weaved in front of him early in the session.


"He [Maldonado] is under investigation," Kovalainen said. "I was the good, he was the bad. He was getting ready for first timed lap, I believe, and I was on my first fast lap.


"He was weaving on the back straight and I was getting very close to him, so obviously he had no intention of letting me by. By the last corner I was right up his bum.


"It didn't cost us much time because I was able to do another lap later on, but in any case he made a mistake and I think he'll probably have to pay for it."


Kovalainen's Caterham team-mate Vitaly Petrov will line up alongside him on the grid in 20th spot, while Maldonado will start 13th.

Post-qualifying press conference:


[spoiler]TV UNILATERAL


Q. Nico, sensational lap how do you feel about your first F1 pole?


Nico ROSBERG: Fantastic, yeah, thank you. It went really well, it's a very special feeling definitely. Now obviously looking forward to starting first tomorrow.


Q. Where did you find the time?


NR: The track was cooling off a little bit, the temperatures were coming down slightly and so the rear tyres started to work a little bit better. Changed the setup of the car slightly before the last run and just got a perfect lap so it worked out really, really well.


Q. Lewis, moving to you, you virtually grew up with Nico through the karting and the single-seaters. Tell us how you feel first of all about his achievement today?


Lewis HAMILTON: Big congratulations to Nico, it's fantastic and really done in style: it's quite a big gap between us. I'm very proud of him and obviously we grew up racing together and always dreamed of being in Formula One together and now we're on the front row together. Obviously I've got a penalty but still, it's a good day.


Q. And what about your own performance today and how you feel you're fixed for the race, bearing in mind where you're going to start on the grid tomorrow?


LH: We're in a good position I think. I made some good setup changes to the car, it feels good, particularly for the long runs. It's going to be tough for sure, there are a lot of good drivers ahead of me but I'll be pushing as hard as I can.


Q. Michael, we heard you on the radio asking for Nico's lap time and when the engineer told you, you sounded pretty surprised by what he'd achieved. Sum up what you think about what you two have done today.


Michael SCHUMACHER: No, I said actually 'well done', because that was a phenomenal lap time. For all of us, to see the gap that big is a bit of a surprise but there you go. He's known as a good qualifier and no reason [for me] to be unhappy. The opposite: happy for him for his first pole. Congratulations as we know - I guess – it's going to be the first [front] row of a proper Mercedes Silver Arrow that we're going to take place in the Shanghai Grand Prix tomorrow. That's a great achievement.


Q. That's right, with Lewis moving five places back


MS: Good for us!


Q. How about your race situation? Obviously you've qualified well inn these cars so far this season but we've seen you go backwards in the race. Do you think it'll be easy on the tyres tomorrow in this car?


MS: Well, my two races, one I retired and the other one I got put backwards by being spun around, so it's not completely clear what we would have seen with our car. It's certainly a question mark whether we would have been able to keep up that position but we'll try our best to do so.


Q. Back you Nico, that's qualifying over with but what do you feel you can do in the race because Mercedes certainly need the points tomorrow, don't they?


NR: Yeah, for me it's also sort of the start of the season now because the first two races haven't gone too well. So it's not bad to start first, obviously for us it's fantastic. Of course it's pretty clear I think that in the race we been not quite as good as in qualifying lately. We've worked very hard to try and improve that but it's not something you can change in a few weeks. It's going to take some time but we're making good progress in the race, that's important. It's difficult to know exactly where we're going to be tomorrow because again with the conditions changing, if it becomes a little bit colder that might help us, for example. I don't really know how it's going to go. For sure we're going to try our best. We're going to work hard tonight to try and do the final little details on the set up, electronically specifically, and make the most of it.


PRESS CONFERENCE


Q. Nico, congratulations, I'm sure you've been waiting for this for a little while?


NR: definitely. It's a great feeling. Fantastic. It worked out well, qualifying, especially as we got it all right in the end. It was a good lap and it all came together. It's the perfect start until now. I'm really happy for the whole team. It really shows that, as a team, we're moving forward. In qualifying we're very, very strong now. In the race we're still not quite as strong and not where we want to be yet but also there, we're learning a lot and progressing fast. The thing is we can't make huge jumps in a couple of weeks, it's going to take a bit more time, but we're getting there.


Q. You said yesterday that you were struggling a little bit with the front tyres. I guess you weren't in qualifying?


NR: In qualifying, not so much, no! In qualifying it was definitely better. The temperature coming down in the end slightly helped, just helped the rear tyres a little bit. We're depending on that also a lot for tomorrow, then how the conditions are can change things a lot for us. It's difficult to know really how well we're going to go tomorrow. We'll see.


Q. You had an amazing margin over whoever was going to be second at the end. It must have been a funny situation when you were walking down the pit lane and everyone was still trying to beat you?


NR: You can say that for sure. The lap time was very, very strange. I had no idea if the track got a lot better or what was going on out there, so I was just hoping, 'come on, let that be enough, please' and it was, so it was good.


Q. It must have been a perfect lap?


NR: It was, definitely.


Q. Lewis, on the front row again, but sadly, you won't be on the front row again [this weekend]. It looked like a good lap.


LH: Yeah, it wasn't such a bad lap, but I'm pleased to say congratulations to Nico, it's fantastic to see him up there and for us to qualify on the front row, for me, is a quite a cool feeling because we were team-mates back in 2000 and good friends from way before that. We always dreamed of being here on the front row and racing in Formula One and here we are. Unfortunately, we won't be able to have that front row, but I'll just have to work my hardest to try to catch him up.


Q. What about that last lap. You aborted it. Were you just not going to be quick enough?


LH: I probably could have gone a tenth quicker but it was very close. It wasn't enough to close the gap to Nico. No one else was improving on their times so it was important to try to save the tyres.


Q. You're a two-time winner here, so what are your chances tomorrow?


LH: I have a lot of work ahead of me. Just moving forward is what I'll be aiming for and obviously to finish the race. Then we'll just see what happens from there. You know anything can happen here with the weather. These guys are going to be massively quick, so I wish them all the best but I just hope me and Jenson can make our way forward and score some valuable points.


Q. Michael, you actually won from sixth on the grid here, that was your best ever grid position here and you've just beaten that by three places. We almost had the sight of Norbert (Haug, Mercedes motor sport boss) dancing in the garage just now, he was so happy. Obviously it's a great result for the Mercedes team.


MS: Absolutely. Norbert has been suffering with us for the last two and a half years. Obviously it's his little baby, to get the Mercedes car up front and to achieve this, with all the effort that Mercedes has put in, the team has put in, it's just great. It's the first front row for Silver Arrows for I don't know how many years (Monza, 1955, three cars, Fangio, Moss, Kling), yeah, very proud of this one.


Q. Was this the sort of performance you've been expecting for the last couple of races?


MS: Actually not. Looking at yesterday, I didn't think it would be enough to fight for pole position and looking at what Nico was able to do, obviously I think it's a little surprise for all of us, but nevertheless, the gap looked a little bit bigger than it finally was today and good for us, let's hope we can keep it that way. Obviously the further forward we are the better the prospects are for tomorrow.


Q. Are you quite confident with the tyres for the race tomorrow?


MS: Yeah. No, we don't have a particular problem, it's just a question of how the general speed on high fuel compares to the others, what that means, and then obviously you have tyre degradation, everybody has it, some have more, some have less but for me, I guess it will be the first proper race which I'm hopefully going to finish and I will tell more at the end!


QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR


Q. (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Nico, you only had one run in Q3; was it because you didn't have any tyres any more or did you save one set?


NR: It was just a decision to save another set of tyres. It was a good lap, I didn't know if it was going to be enough or not, but it was definitely a good lap and saving a set is very good for the race, so we just took the decision to go for that, because the race is where the points are, not in qualifying.


Q. (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) You could have had two runs, did you save a set of tyres beforehand, then?


MS: Yup, same (as Nico).


Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) Nico, what was your feeling when you discovered that you had pole?


NR: First of all, it was strange beforehand because I was standing there on my own and everybody else was still going round, but I couldn't do anything any more, so it was strange. And then slowly but surely, I saw the sector times and I saw that it was definitely going to be enough so fantastic, very excited.


Q. (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Nico, you said that tomorrow might be good if the temperature goes down a little bit, because it might be better for the rear tyres, but yesterday, wasn't it a problem that the low temperatures created some graining on the front?


NR: Yeah, that's true, that's why it's difficult to foresee tomorrow and our performance compared to the other top teams. We just need to wait. We're in a good position now, we've done our homework over the last couple of days, we've optimised what we have with the knowledge that we have. Of course, we're still learning a lot with the car, a lot of things are different but we will see. Difficult to say.


Q. (China Radio International – Peng Yan Yuan) Michael, you came back last year, and now you're doing well this year and we have Kimi coming back this year. So who's going to be the next former World Champion coming back to Formula One?


MS: Well, there are plenty of elder champions around so I don't know. Ask around!


Q. (Xinmin Evening News – Li Ran Ran) Nico, this year you have your first pole, do you feel pressure with Hamilton and Michael behind you?


NR: Of course. Of course I'm very proud, the first pole is great, for the whole team, it's a special moment for the whole team and the first of many moments to come, great results and everything. And it's great to share the qualifying podium here with Lewis and Michael. With Lewis, in the year 2000, we were saying how we imagined one day we were going to be one and two in F1 and now here in qualifying that's the case, so that's nice. Of course, having Michael to share the front row with is fantastic for the team, so it's good.[/spoiler]

[LUKIE]

I didn't get to watch qualifying as I had a tasting session to run at the shop. Sounds like a fantastic session though. Can't wait for the race tomorrow. Go Kobayashi!

[Lineker]

Pastor Maldonado and Pedro de la Rosa have been given reprimands for impeding other cars during qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Williams driver Maldonado was under investigation for having blocked Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen, who said after qualifying that he was expecting the Venezuelan to be penalised.

Maldonado, however, was only reprimanded by the stewards.

"He was weaving on the back straight and I was getting very close to him, so obviously he had no intention of letting me by. By the last corner I was right up his bum," said Kovalainen.

"It didn't cost us much time because I was able to do another lap later on, but in any case he made a mistake and I think he'll probably have to pay for it."

De la Rosa was reprimanded for having impeded Maldonado's team-mate Bruno Senna during Q1.

Both McLaren and Mercedes insist that they are satisfied with the FIA's decision to go ahead with next week's Bahrain Grand Prix.

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn and his opposite number at McLaren Martin Whitmarsh are both happy to accept the sport's governing body's assurances that the race will be safe.

"It is very difficult for us," said Brawn. "We have to take the advice of people who have all the information that is happening. We have reassurances from the FIA that they believe we can have a safe race there, so we follow that advice.

"We are not seeing what we saw last year, for sure. We are taking all the sensible measures you can to have the best race we can have. There are a lot of positives about going there, so we don't want to lose that."

Whitmarsh emphasised that Bahrain is not the only venue on the calendar for which there are safety concerns - citing road safety in India and crime in Brazil as factors that McLaren takes into account when travel is planned.

He insists that while Bahrain remains on the calendar, McLaren will race there.

"Bahrain is on the calendar and we've had it affirmed and re-affirmed by the FIA and the commercial rights holder in the last 24 hours so as far as we are concerned, we are going there to race.

"We travel to Brazil, we travel to a whole variety of places. We are mindful of some security that we need to take in some venues that we go to. We are not always as comfortable as we would like to be in some of the venues that we raced in last year, but ultimately we don't decide that. The calendar is fixed.

"We attended a meeting yesterday and not one team voiced a concern. There was not much point in doing so."

A number of media outlets, including Finland's MTV3 and Japan Fuji TV, have decided not to send their crews to Bahrain.

Jenson Button has warned that Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi will be a factor in the Chinese Grand Prix.

Kobayashi starts the race from third on the grid and his practice pace suggests that he can maintain that for into the race.

While Button, who starts fifth, expects Mercedes to drop back despite Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher starting on the front row, he is less confident about being able to get ahead of the Sauber.

"It's not easy starting from where we are, but most of the cars in front are ones that we are quicker than in the race," said Button. "The one that is unusual is Kobayashi.

"Their [sauber's] pace seems very good on long runs. I think he's going to be pretty tricky tomorrow."

Button is hopefully of being able to fight his way into contention for victory and predicted that the early stages of the race will be dramatic because of the unusual qualifying order.

He suspects that he and team-mate Lewis Hamilton, Kobayashi and the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen could have a pace advantage over the Mercedes once the race is underway.

"It's a completely different grid to what we have seen so far, so it will be an exciting first few laps," said Button. "We have Kamui just in front so that's going to be a lot of fun.

"You'd probably say that the Mercedes race pace is not as good as those behind them."

Kimi Raikkonen admitted he was disappointed with the pace of his car during qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Although the Finn will start from a season-best fourth position, he said he was expecting his Lotus to be quicker after the promise of the first two races.

Raikkonen finished over seven tenths of a second off the time set by Mercedes's Nico Rosberg, and although he said he was pleased with his starting position, he expected to be closer to the front.

"It was not too bad, but I am a bit disappointed with the gap to the front and I think we were stronger in the last race than we were here," said Raikkonen.

"The grid position is okay but when you look at the times, I'm disappointed with the pace of the car today. The rest have improved and we have not."

When asked if he could have extracted something more from his car, he said: "No, the car couldn't go much faster, we tried but we couldn't go much faster."

The Finn reckons Lotus's chances of a strong race will depend on the temperature rising for tomorrow's event after a cool day on Saturday.

"Usually our car is good in the race but it would need to be hotter and that should help us and hurt the other teams so we have to see how it goes," he added.

[hugobomb]

F1 and the City?

EJ: These are my friends!

DC (aside to camera): I'm not his friend

DC

[hugobomb]

And I actully quite like Jake's & Eddies new jackets

[maninblack]

Dammit! Schumacher retires from the Shanghai GP!

He's bloody snakebit this season. 3 good qualifying performances, all for naught

[Summers]

I'd be pissed if I was Schumi right now.

[maninblack]

Bah gawd, this is going to be Nico Rosberg's day.

EDIT: Rosberg for WDC!

Edited April 15, 2012 by maninblack

[Summers]

Kimi's decline was insane.

And fuck Hamilton. I hope he crashes.

Well played Rosberg. Good racer, deserved a win. Easy for him today.

[MDK]

Such a waste of good champers