2012 Chinese Grand Prix championship points

2012 Chinese Grand Prix

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2012 Chinese Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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49 comments on “2012 Chinese Grand Prix championship points”

  1. This season gonna be EPIC if Mercedes wouldn’t dominate like today!

    1. Boring – Mercedes & Rosberg always win….

      :(

      1. I hope it’s not the case…

      2. did you watch the same race as the rest of us?

        1. well said. JB had a great chance to win it, McL ruined has options with that pit fail.

          1. Jb had a chance to finish 10s back instead of 20 nobody had anything for Mb today.

        2. Tongue still in cheek :)

      3. Merc seem to have their tyre-wear sorted out, so careful now, it might just be true. :P

        1. Low temperature of China could hind their problem. Luckily(?) we can see whether it’s true in Bahrain next week.

          1. The thing is when it’s working they are pretty quick and can make their tyres last as much as any other team … But I still suspect the low T° was very favorable for them, bahrein will bring us the other extrem (normally) so we will know quickly ^^

  2. Consistency is what matters, and Lewis clearly has this figured out this season. Imagine what would have been had he not taken the 5-position grid penalty.
    And this has to be one of the best races I have watched – ever.

    1. Clearly you have only watched 3 races so far this year. Its too long a season to be saying that Lewis has sorted out his lack consistency…

      1. But he would really impress me if he manages to hold on to this for the whole year. Just imagine, Hamilton of all drivers racking up the championship after getting in 3rd (and 2nd) places all year, while others catch nice wins but are nowhere close the next race on!

        Now that would be an impressive show of keeping a clear head from Hamilton, I would say.

      2. Actually, i believe its visible

        There was a few points today where he had a sniff of an overtake on a few cars but ‘wiggled’ out of it, maybe in races gone by he would have kept his foot in and lost an endplate or wheel

        1. Paul Ogbeiwi (@)
          15th April 2012, 11:56

          very truee…people say they want the racer back, but i;m actually okay with the way he is now. he’s still a racer, hes just thinking thrice about moves now before he makes them. although they both got held up, i still believe hamilton is faster on qualifying and over race distance. we shall wait and see when they’re fighting for one and two positions who really is the better complete package for 2012. they’ve definitely both up’ed their games. 2012 WCC mclaren i have no doubts. 2012 WDC? hmmmmmm….lewis or jenson. take your pick. i pick lewis

        2. True. Esp when Jenson was pulling away as Hamilton struggled to overtake Massa, and then Perez later in the race. Last season, we know how that would have ended :)

    2. I also agree to an extend.

      I think if Jenson didn’t get such great start, both Kimi and Lewis would have pulled away from him.

  3. If Lewis can keep up with such consistency then he is in a good position to win the championship. The championsihp is a long way and it looks like its going to be an exciting season. No dominant car as yet. Epic!

  4. Three races; three podiums; zero nose changes; zero visits to the stewards. That’s how you win a title.

    1. Lewis says amen to that.

    2. That’s exactly what I was thinking. I just hope that the “new” Lewis stays patient, he has had a few bits of bad luck in the first three races, his first win of the season will come if he just carries on performing the way he is now.

      1. @GeeMac , Yeah there were times today when I thought his patience would snap and he would try something stupid, but to be fair that was a very mature drive from Lewis, just the right mix of disciplines.

        1. @bigbadderboom It really was. I thinhk it was typified by his move on Vettel at the end of the race, he was very tentative with it and gave Vettel a lot more room than was necessary.

    3. exactly right, he nailed his approach today, agressive but calm, took his chances, definitely championship winning form and his confidence will increasing as this happens. He’s also had a lot of bad luck with strategy and pit stops so the wins will come too

    4. Exactly what I thought, we might just be seeing a really evolved and strong Hamilton emerging @dmw

    5. I completely agree. I know it’s a bit too early to be saying this, but I’m starting to think that Hamilton may finally have re-discovered his 2007 form – patiently and consistently collecting the podiums and waiting for the win to come to him. I think that year was Hamilton’s strongest season – it took him until the 6th race, but in the meantime he consistently racked up the podiums and set himself up with a nice lead in the championship by the end of his run. And that’s what he seems to be doing again this year. In terms of this year’s championship however, Button still looks to be in his 2011 form which is also very strong, so I’m still not sure who will win out!

    6. I think and I hope this race will help Hamilton to regain his confidence. he made some clean and smooth overtaking moves without DRS…something he didn’t do very well last season.

  5. Massa is the only driver bar those from the 3 “new” teams not to score a point so far.

    It doesn’t look good connsidering where his team mate is.

    1. Shocking, really.
      Also surprising is that all the midfield teams (and drivers) have scored points.

  6. What is clear is that RBR are doing a fantastic job in the race strategy department compared to Mclaren.
    They pit their drivers and bring them out in good positions. They even got Webber ahead of Hamilton.
    If things continue like this, RBR may be ahead in the constructors championship in no time.

    1. Agree, and good to see Webber ahead of Vettel again.

    2. Actually Webber got Webber ahead of Hamilton by setting fastest lap after his early pit stop, unfortunately the new tyres on Hamiltons car tipped the advantage back to Hamilton but Webber seemed to be glued to Hamilton all race long.

      1. It is interesting you mentioned Webber setting fast laps after his pit stop. You can’t set fast laps if you are running in traffic. So it still comes down to strategy and finding the right window to maximise potential.

      2. If webber dindnt have a couple lame offs he probably gets p2. Given the strategies. A bit sloppy from him. Again really mclaren drivers make up for bad strategy and misfortune with dogged clean drives. Now that we see vettel is mortal without Ebd mclaren has a clear edge in drivers.

  7. Looks like the battle for the championship will be insanely close. With mclaren, redbull and mercedes all being able to win races and take podiums. Closely followed by Sauber, Ferarri and Lotus. Already looking forward to the next race!

  8. Too bad about Schumi, i would have loved to see him back on the podium.

  9. oh…Kimi Raikonen…he was 2nd

    1. So was Massa :)

      1. haha epic

    2. pitting after vettel went by Kimi could have put him in with a chance ahead of webber [4th]

  10. The table looks quite good for a close fight at the minute but I’m worried it won’t stay that way. Mclaren are a great team and clearly have a good package but although they’ve had good results I’m left feeling that so far they haven’t capitalised on that early advantage. I’m surprised they haven’t 1-2’d every race so far to be honest. Ferrari are useless right now, Red Bull look lacklustre, Sauber are surprisingly shifty but you have to wonder if you can keep up with development and while Merc and Lotus also look good they don’t look quite as good as Mclaren and have had enough troubles already. The action has been great so far but even though it’s early I don’t see how Mclaren can lose this year (but then again it’s F1 and the crazy usually happens so more fool me).

    1. @steph, look at it the way Alonso does, the glass is half full. Alonso has more points than either Red Bull, even when Ferrari are clearly way off the pace. And with the grid being this tight, there’s all the chance of getting back on top of it. Red Bull are struggling, but they are bound to find their car’s sweet spot eventually.

      McLaren are fastest, but not quite, and having both drivers in the lead of the championship will make both have a tough fight on their hands, a bit hotter, or colder or a wet race can change everything right now. And with Mercedes now getting to making the most of their fast qualifying will mean McLaren will have a harder job of it still. Not to mention that Lotus and Sauber are close enough to influence that fight as well.

      All in all, we seem to be in for a really nice season.

      1. Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’ll be a season full of close racing (or so I hope) but I cna’t help but feel that the no1 spot in the WCC is inevitable. I’m pretty pleased about Ferrari given how woeful everything really is for them!

  11. Great race. Was slightly disappointed that RBR didn’t pit Vettel to give him chance of podium. Was even more surprised by Kimi getting eaten up after Seb’s overtake. I was shouting for him to pit. EB said afterwards if he had pitted he would have got 14th which he did anyway, if they thought he would be out of the points why not give him a chance!

    Interesting to see there wasn’t much between the two exhausts on the RBR overall with Webber beating Vettel on tyres at the end. Why not use both spec’s and develop for the drivers? I bet Mark needed new shorts after that wheelie he pulled!

    Great to see two Union Jacks flying high on the podium. Great drives by so many out there today. More of the same in Bahrain, although I won’t hold my breath!

    1. @chelseano161997 Given how close the field was throughout the race, especially vying for those two other podium spots I really doubt Red Bull pitting Vettel would have given him a better chance at the podium. They made the right call with a two stopper, he didn’t have any breathing space to squeeze in another pit-stop.

  12. I would have expected that after 3 races the championship order would have ‘sorted itself out’. In that I mean you have Sergio Perez ahead of Kimi Raikkonen yet Nico Rosberg who has won a race is only 6th! Just a couple of examples.

    I do expect it will shuffle itself around more but there are eyes to be kept on the likes of Sauber in the near future. They’re note championship contenders but they could easily nick a lot of points from someone who is.

  13. In some sort all this puts even more pressure on all drivers with in the shot of the Championship. Just imagine if they don’t score in one race and whole bunch can go past them.

    Lewis is doing great job, but it’s only as good as his last high scoring race.

    I hope Nico and Kimi comes back into run soon, most future races do favor Lotus more than previous GPs, same is for Red Bulls, I think McLaren will have to work very hard for their so called “lead”everyone think they have so far.

    Interesting to see how Mercedes coping with high temperatures.

    Exiting season!!!!!!!

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