2018 Formula One Season ***Possible Spoilers***

Meaningless or important?

Ultrasoft long run average times Vettel – 1:38.9 Hamilton – 1:39.14 Bottas – 1:39.17 Ricciardo - 1:39.17

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login Karun Chandhok‏Verified account @karunchandhok 3h3 hours ago
Interesting race weekend ahead at the #ChineseGP. All 4 Ferrari and Mercedes within 0.108 on the Quali sim. RBR, Ferrari and Merc all within 0.2 in race pace averages. Game on!

 

Bottas was third, dear.

 

15 deg at track in china!!

 

FP 3

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I'm surprised. Qualifying.

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This must irk Lewis....I hope.

Image Unavailable, Please Login Scuderia Ferrari‏Verified account @ScuderiaFerrari 10m10 minutes ago
#Seb5’s pole lap is the new track record 1:31.095 #ChineseGP #Quali

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Sebastian Vettel claimed his 52nd career pole position ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in the dying moments of an intriguing qualifying hour at the Shanghai International Circuit.

As in Bahrain, but on a very different type of circuit, Mercedes once again struggled to get the softer tyres to work on a single lap; this time the ultrasofts. They could not find the grip that Ferrari could.

It is a potentially very significant outcome for the championship, as Mercedes clearly have a problem that requires an urgent solution.

While neither Ferrari nor Mercedes are offering any concrete explanations for the half second difference in pace, it’s clear that it relates to keeping the softer tyres in the correct temperature range. Both teams will start the race on the soft compound tyres and Mercedes looked very fast on those.

The result means that the current championship leader has secured back-to-back pole positions for the first time since 2013, with Ferrari taking consecutive front-row lockouts for the first time since 2006.

In addition to this, reigning champion Lewis Hamilton could only qualify his Mercedes in fourth place, behind team-mate Valtteri Bottas, and will face an early race threat from the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, especially as both will be fast off the line on the ultrasoft tyres. That is worth an estimated 7 metres at the start in Shanghai.

Against that, Shanghai is one of the top three easiest tracks of the season for overtaking, thanks to a 1.2km straight and powerful DRS effect. But Hamilton looks out of sorts and is up against it.

“I knew that on the first lap I had some mistakes,” said Vettel, “I lost the rear at Turn 3 at the exit of the low-speed, and then 6 again, so I was a bit beaten up, but then I knew that if I got a tidy lap and I have a little bit of margin then I could push.

“The last lap in Q3 I knew I could step it up.”

“It was OK, but not good enough,” bemoaned Raikkonen.

“Obviously it’s going to be a long race. We need to stay out of issues and go from there and see what it brings.”

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg lead the midfield battle with a solid seventh place, ahead of a much-improved Force India of Sergio Perez and team-mate Carlos Sainz. Romain Grosjean ensured Haas appeared in their third Q3 appearance of the season.



Qualifying session 1

The final free practice session turned into a disaster for Daniel Ricciardo; his Red Bull suffered an engine failure and left his mechanics with a race against time to swap power units in time for the qualifying hour.

His side of the garage were still scrambling to get the car ready as the first part of qualifying began, but with around three minutes of Q1 to go, the Australian was sent out to set his one-and-only time of the session.

Ricciardo had only managed four laps on Saturday morning, and his lack of earlier running was evident in the missed apexes of his flying lap. Nonetheless his sole flying lap was marginally fast enough to progress into Q2.

The two Williams and Saubers were eliminated from the first part of qualifying, along with Bahrain Grand Prix hero Pierre Gasly, who was brought back down to earth with a seventeenth place result.

Charles Leclerc out-qualified his more experienced team-mate Marcus Ericsson for the first time this season, despite earlier losing control of his Sauber on the exit of the final corner and narrowly keeping his car out of the barrier before the pit wall.



Qualifying session 2

Attentions turned to the front and, more specifically, which tyres were going to be used by Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

Pirelli had brought an even softer qualifying tyre with them to the Shanghai circuit. Therefore, with any Q3 teams regulated to start the race on their Q2 tyres, there was an additional strategic headache for the top teams.

Both Ferrari and Mercedes chose to send their drivers out on the soft tyres, with Red Bull choosing to progress with the ultrasoft tyre.

Ferrari were safely through to Q3, despite toying with the idea of making a last-minute switch to the ultrasofts, whilst Mercedes elected to complete additional laps on the softs to secure their place in the final part of qualifying.

Kevin Magnussen ended his early-season Q3 streak by being edged out of the top ten in the final moments of the session, ahead of Force India’s Esteban Ocon.

McLaren continued their 2018 form of only reaching Q2, with Fernando Alonso thirteenth and Stoffel Vandoorne fourteenth, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley.



Qualifying session 3

Just as they did in free practice three, Ferrari demonstrated a devastating turn of pace in the final part of qualifying; Raikkonen topped the time sheets ahead of team-mate Vettel after the first runs, with Mercedes seemingly unable to provide an answer to their pace.

The Finn had looked strong all weekend and, just as he looked on course to secure his first pole position of the season, a poor final sector opened the door for Vettel to steal pole position by less than one tenth of a second, an even smaller margin than his Bahrain qualifying triumph.

Bottas pipped Hamilton to third place, whilst the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Ricciardo were unable to get in amongst the top four.

The Mercedes drivers now face the prospect of having to defend against a pair of feisty Red Bull drivers on ultrasoft tyres in the first stint of the race, and race strategy could depend on how well the Red Bulls can survive on those softer tyres.

 

"he's down in the dumps"

http://f1.channel4.com/video/lewis-ferrari-have-just-turned