China Grand Prix preview
The way the first three races have gone it’s sure to be a Shanghai surprise this Sunday as we head over to China for the fourth grand prix of the season. So far we have had three very different races, three different winning drivers and three different winning constructors, making for a varied opening to the 2010 campaign.
The Chinese Grand Prix was added to the calendar in 2004, and the course is one of Herman Tiike’s more adventurous efforts, which isn’t saying much really. The notoriously boring track designer was obviously enjoying life when he scribbled this one out. The German got all creative and designed it in the shape of the Chinese letter “shang” which means “above” or “high”, the letter for “exciting” clearly did not have enough turns in it. Of the track, turns two and three are the doozies. They are like a vortex that appears out of nowhere, sucks the cars in, spins them round and spits them back out again.
Practise has been heating up ahead of the race. Sebastian Buemi looked like he was the victim of a cruel prank by his mechanics when his front wheels flew off his Torro Rosso, while he headed down the back straight towards turn 14 at 200mph. It was actually a mechanical failure and not a prank, although I bet they giggled in the pit lane as the wheels popped off in comedy fashion. Not Buemi though, how shocked must have he been? His eyes probably popped out so far they cracked his visor.
Sebastian Vettel is the man to beat. Mini-Schumi has started this season where he left off the last and has been the best driver in every race so far, even though he didn’t finish two of them. Red Bull answered questions about their reliability last week with a one-two finish, well and truly laying down the gauntlet. The Red Bull is currently so competitive that Mark “the Claude Makelele of racing” Webber has also put himself in contention.
Michael Schumacher can go into this race confident; the pointy-jawed German holds the lap record on this track with a 1:32:238 which he set back in 2004. Having said that he also holds the record at Bahrain and Australia and look how they panned out for him.
Schumi last took the chequered flag in China in 2006 and all-eyes will be on the perm-haired seven-time world champion who has endured a torrid time so far. Unless he starts finding his form soon he’s going to start wishing he had never come out of retirement. Should have stayed on the beach Michael.
Meanwhile, it was Lewis Hamilton who has so far set the fastest time in practise. The McLaren racer has risen to the challenge of world champion Jenson Button’s arrival, but he has also suffered some absurdly bad luck. Not that he goes on about it all the time. To be fair he drove a great race in Malaysia but only finished eighth, he is going to want to win this one to remind everyone he can be clinical as well as skilful.
Teammate Button will be out for his second victory, there was talk before the season saying McLaren was Hamilton’s team and Button a one-season wonder. He’s made a mockery of that so far as he currently leads his teammate by an epic four points.
It is the Ferrari boys who are leading the way atop the tables. Ferrari have looked quick, but not the quickest. Their key has been consistency; they have qualified well, got their tactics there-or-there-abouts and have a reliable engine. It would seem that the Scuderia’s racers, Filipe Massa and Fernando Alonso mean business. They are here to race hard and chew bubblegum and they have run out of bubble gum.
Bizarrely of the six races so far held in Shanghai, there have been six different winners, thus giving hope to Kamui Kobayashi and the Sauber boys. Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso and Button will be the ones to beat while Massa, Schumacher and Rosberg are all in the mix and Robert Kubica is also something of a dark-horse. All these drivers will be hoping that they can avoid China syndrome and come away with a good result
In the land of the communism it is the individual display that is going to claim victory and this race is crying out for a heroic performance.
However someone better make sure Buemi‘s tightened his wing nuts this time, any more hair-raising experiences like that and he won’t be able to operate chopsticks again.
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