Rate the race: 2012 Chinese Grand Prix

2012 Chinese Grand Prix

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What did you think of the Chinese Grand Prix? Share your verdict on today’s race.

F1 Fanatic holds polls on each race to find out which fans thought were the best and worst races during a season.

Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (22%)
  • 9 (42%)
  • 8 (24%)
  • 7 (8%)
  • 6 (2%)
  • 5 (1%)
  • 4 (0%)
  • 3 (0%)
  • 2 (0%)
  • 1 (1%)

Total Voters: 862

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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See the results for past seasons here:

Author information

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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290 comments on “Rate the race: 2012 Chinese Grand Prix”

  1. How can a race that close, in the dry, not be a 10! Brilliant.

    1. Can’t agree more. Great racing without rain and SC lottery.

      1. +1 and Nico wins.

    2. Good race. Too bad the piece of rubber don’t let drivers try to pass other cars outside the racing line. A few drivers tried that and end up out of the track. In another matter it is kind of fun to see button beating Hamilton even with the 6-8 seconds he lost on the last pit stop. Alonso keeps scoring points in a dog car and he might have had a better result if it wasn’t because of a useless, unnecessary put stop he made to put soft tires. He was in the hunt the entire race but couldn’t do much cause there were at least 4. Or 5 drivers that had 1 pit stop less than the other drivers in the top 10.

      1. Yeah button is looking great. It was good to see Lewis looking positive and genuinely happy, I think that might change if HAmilton starts thinking about Jenson and how their pace is evenly matched even with Button faster somethimes.

        This is why this race is so cool, it gives a lot to think about.

        1. Lewis looking really good this season. Without penalty he might have own the race.
          Pace was on par with button just grid position hampered him.

      2. ” In another matter it is kind of fun to see button beating Hamilton even with the 6-8 seconds he lost on the last pit stop”
        I think that is a very irrational statement. How can someone who has 43 points beat someone with 45? Lewis started from 7th and finished 3rd- 4 places up, while Button started from 4th and finished 2nd -2 places up. Both are great drivers and I think it is not fair to make ridiculous and unnecessary comparisons just to satisfy one’s bias. Also remember that Maclaren is on top cos of the greater number of points brought in by Lewis.

        1. by your logic Nico had a terrible race relative to Hamilton because Hamilton gained +4 and Nico gained +0. BOO Nico, why didn’t you gain positions?!

          1. use your head. You cant make up non-existent positions. Button drove a crazily good race – as did Lewis.
            We should be flaring the McLaren pit crews, who cant seem to go a weekend without messing something up. Lewis was never going to win this race, but Jenson had a pretty good chance to nick it – right up to when his pit crew left him sitting there wishing he’d brought a newspaper along.
            Cant wait for Bahrain.

          2. A sense of perspective is needed here. McLaren’s pit crew also gained Hamilton a position over Raikkonen. And unlike Mercedes, at least they remembered to hold Button until the wheel was attached properly.

        2. Button started in 6th, up 4 places same as Hammy. Both drivers doing great jobs, I hate arrogant people who love to hate certain drivers. I support the British drivers as always but I do have a bit more love for Hamilton :)

          1. Button started 5th, so up 3, Hamilton up 4. But either way, as you say, the British drivers doing very well, and so close together. It’s going to be an interesting battle between them, as well as all the way down the field. So far, 2012, what an absolutely fantastic season!

          2. Button started in 5th. Hamilton in 7th.

        3. Where is the quote from please?

          1. It is my reply to a comment by @Tete, up.

        4. * Correction
          Jenson started 5th, not 4th. So he gained 3 positions.

          1. Yes but one was a retirement.

          2. THis is in relation to the comparison of HAM and BUT’s position gains in the race. HAM also gained a spot during retirement. Also, gaining positions in the top 5 is harder than gaining them further down the field.

      3. It’s sad to see how Jenson fans constantly display this bad vibe/attitude towards Hamilton assessing his every single comment with disdain as if he a horrible guy. Is it possible for you the enjoy the fact you prefer Jenson without these absurd comparisons. It’s probably time you look at their racing life and compare results, then I am sure you will keep it to yourself. Wikipedia is a good place.

        1. I dont see a comparison. jenson has one of the best karting records ever in the uk. That was running on ols tyres due to his budjet. ofen used for more than one meeting. When he did arrive in F1 it was in a car that never on the front running pace until Brawn. (thanks JB for winning me £3500 for the WC)
          By comparison Lewis has had the best of the best since he was 8 years old.
          Both great drivers with very different styles, will be good too see it unfold over many years to come.

          1. @abboracing Hamilton’s dad worked 3 jobs to pay for Lewis’s his karting…

          2. In the very early days yes

      4. Both button and Hamilton had good races but tbh I think hamiltons could have beaten button or at the very least challenged him given he wasn’t stuck behind a lot of traffic after every pit stop. Either way. Solid race for McLaren :)

        1. Ifs, buts and maybes. If Hamilton hadn’t been held up, then maybe he could have challenged, but if Button hadn’t been held up in a bad pit stop, he could have challenged for the win.

          Both had good races, leave it at that.

      5. hamilton is the quickest driver out there, button is the best at managing a race, combine both skills and u have the greatest ever! they are both as gd as each other, even if the level button has got to has surprised me, at least no1 is dominating this year, like cant cope with actual racing s vettel was last year,

      6. Wow, it must be hard being Lewis!

    3. The only reason I gave it a 9 was because there was no real battle for 1st. Other than that, it was a beautiful race. As a Kimi fan I was sad when he fell back, but the great battles for 2nd more than made up for it. Also, great drive by Rosberg, definitely deserved it. Vettel also drove very well.

      1. 100% agree.

    4. i never rate 10. it would have to be a race like that one but with an intense battle for the lead.

      1. Ditto. Also many passes were due to DRS. But it was immense fun to watch.

        1. the DRS worked well IMO. it was just unfortunate that drivers were running in a train alot of the time.

    5. A brilliant race, and congratulations to Rosberg, what a fantastic weekend he’s had.
      Raikkonen’s tyres hit the cliff pretty dramatically, he dropped down to 14th from 2nd!

      1. Raikkonen had same tyres for 27 laps. He managed not to be overtaked by others several laps because he saved all the kers for the straight line and for the rest of the lap, overtaking was difficult in out zone of racing line. Too bad that his tyres fails at the end. I hope he managed to make a strong opinion of Pirelli tyres(first season for him), and this situation will never repeat again.

    6. Close battle, no in-race penalty, no safety car, great pack racing and overtaking, third team to win after three races, great Chinese Grand Prix! Just missed a crash, but Webber flew, newcomers and rookies drive really well this year, no spins nor mistakes. I rated highly this time, 2012 should be good (if we don’t go to Bahrain!!!)

    7. It wasn’t close at the front. That’s really the only negative I can find, even though I’m delighted for Nico and excited to see a new winner in the sport. I’m giving it a 9.

    8. A 9 out of 10 for China for the 3rd year in a row!

      That battle for second was one of the best things I’ve ever seen in F1. A new winner.

      First half of the race was a 5/10 second half an 11/10 so I’d give it a 9 not a 10.

    9. No real challenge for the lead at anytime, that’s how.

    10. Because of the first 3 quarters. A solid 9 though. Great race, congrats Nico.

    11. Can I give it an 11?

  2. 9 out of 10. I only have one word that was EPIC. Happy for Nico, racing behind him was great. 2012 will be a great year, everybody’s so close together.

    1. Yeah I went for 9/10, a truly great race. So happy for Rosberg, and even more so for Mercedes to win a Grand Prix for the first time in so long.
      The fight for the other podium places was crazy! I was relieved to see Hamilton and Button work their way through the pack at the end, as it looked for a while like another poor strategy call from Mclaren was going to hurt them both.
      Great race.

    2. I also went for 9/10. The race was a bit slow to get going, but when it did finally kick in to life, it was fantastic.

      1. Yeah it all kicked off when Kimi got overtaken, then it hit the fan at every turn. I can’t ever think of a grid so close together like that. After 2 laps maybe, but 40 odd? Ha!

    3. I went 9/10 too. It started a bit slow, less overtakes then we’d have liked but it wasnt awful, just a slow burner until it was apparent that everyone was on different strategies and thats when the excitment built into the fine crescendo that was the final 20laps. Great stuff!

      If Button hadnt had that bad pitstop and was able to challenge Nico for the win, then Id have made it 10, possibly.

      Still, like last year, the Chinese GP has come alive and is actually having lot of people turn up, I expect that was a result of last years race and they’ll probably get more people there next year as a result of todays race.

      1. I went for 9, I thought it was a great race but what made it annoying for me and not the race was that Gary Anderson, his reports are soo annoying in my opinion, well that is the BBC side, I also felt there were some boring minutes.

        1. Yeah 9/10 for me as well. At times it was like watching NASCAR!..haha..train of cars passing and repassing and then repassing again..it was pure class this one..best race I have ever watched!

          Kudos to Nico. Been following his career since he was in GP2, always was impressed with his pace and aggression, just too bad it took him this long to get the win. Better late than never, lets hope he was mount a push for the title this year.

          This year will probably be the closest championship ever! We’ve already had 3 different winners from 3 different teams. I suspect this trend will continue, but its hard to see a Mclaren driver not winning it. Then again, it really depends on what Mercedes, Red Bull and for love of racing, Ferrari can pull out of the bag come Barcelona!.

  3. 8/10
    If all that drama for 2nd and 3rd being the fight for the win, then it would have been 10.
    Fantastic racing, credit to the drivers really that nobody crashed properly.

    1. In the heat of the moment I would have gone for a 10, very happy for Nico. But I voted 8 too. Too much Trulli trains in the race. As a friend of mine pointed out, Massa was exercising for a drive on the safety car :). (no disrespect meant to Massa, Kimi took care of replacing him lately)

      1. You can’t blame Kimi for that. Is not his fault if others can’t overtake him with newer tyres (Raikkonen had 27 laps with same tyres, a record in that race). This was his strategy not to do the third pit-stop and to keep a position in front. The strategy was good if the length race was shorter with 5 laps.
        And you can’t blame him for that miscalculation. It is his first season with Pirelli.

        1. To be honest I think a lot of people on the 3 stop strategy got caught out by who tightly packed everyone was. They had to decide whether to keep position on a track where DRS wasn’t helping people overtake too easily and try and defend, or come in a lose 10-15 positions and they have to try and get them all back with only 15 odd laps left. They had to make a call, and despite the result for Kimi I still think it was the right one. They could pit a near enough gurantee no points, or stay out and keep some, as Vettel managed. I mean, if Vettel had pit again, I doubt he would have made it back higher than 5th anyway.

          1. (In the first sentence I am referring mainly to those who looked like they were on a 3 stop strategy, but who only ended up doing 2. Not those who actually did 3, just so that’s clear etc).

  4. No reason at all for lower than 10/10

    1. The first 40 laps?

      1. haha, my thoughts exactly

      2. Yes. It was really boring those laps. Also that track, the rubber and the Pirelli tires made it harder for overtaking.

        1. i thought the reason was,
          Ria was so fast down the straight that nobody could pass each other.
          everyone had there DRS open but no one gained anything, LOL.
          just shows how it can be soooo booooring with out DRS.

          1. Kimi was saving all his KERS up everytime, he new nobody could move off the racing line anywhere else, so bunched everyone up and let the KERS get him up to speed on the straight.

        2. I’d give the race a 7 for this reason, the amount of rubber off the line meant that although the drivers were tightly bunched, they had little chance to make use of the circuit’s width. It meant we didn’t really see much creative passing – I’d rather see one or two great passes in unexpected places, than a few more in the obvious or same spots. Given the teams seem very close, the tyre wear doesn’t seem so necessary this year to ensure close racing.

          1. the amount of rubber off the line meant that although the drivers were tightly bunched, they had little chance to make use of the circuit’s width

            I don’t remember seeing a single driver hold back from making a passing move because of rubber off-line.

            I did, however see several drivers making mistakes on the rubber which created overtaking opportunities.

            I think it’s a knee-jerk point of view to say that marbles off-line prevent racing. A lot of the time they actually enhance it, as they did today.

          2. Well, maybe it is a knee-jerk reaction, but precisely because of those mistakes you mention, there seemed to be more reluctance from drivers to overtake, despite seeming to be right behind other cars, faster, and with track to spare to the sides. I bow to your better judgment though.

          3. Totally agree David, Pirelli should have gone for the medium and hard compounds instead of the soft and medium although in their defense track conditions may have turned out different than anticipated. Also the DRS zone was too short to work effectively. Not a bad race though and I hope that they take lessons from this race and improve for next year. Congrats Nico

        3. I think boring is quite a bit exaggerated for this race Tete, we saw really nice battles all through the race really.

      3. @matt90 I think I enjoyed the first 40 laps also as I was looking into each driver’s strategy and it was fascinating. Those laps might have little action, but seeing the process of different strategies being unfolded is equally brilliant with the battles in the last 20 laps.

        1. Yep @alfisti37 well said, those first 40 laps there was a lot of different drivers doing different things on track, keeping it interesting almost all the time. Great potential to go well or not so well hinging on small decisions. Massa and Raikkonen lost out in the end, but might have done better with a slightly different strategy; Vettel could have done worse, but kept it reasonably okay, could possibly have gotten 2nd. All set up in those 40 laps for a great finish fight for 2nd-10th after that.

      4. I rated it 7/10. As I always do, I was thinking of the rating as I watched the race, and I was going to give it a 6. True, the last laps were very good, but not enough to earn more than a point.

        1. Why @fixy, only because Ferrari weren’t in the thick of it with Alonso? I thought that with a slightly different strategy, both Massa and Raikkonen could have been fighting for 5th.

          1. Kimi dropped down not because of his strategy, as he was 2nd before running wide trying to defend his position. Alonso and Massa had both good races, but I never rate a race based on my favourite teams’ performance.

  5. Yes, it was a 10, especially the latter part of the race.

  6. First 3/4 of the race was incredibly boring considering how much I expected the Grand Prix. The last bit was fantastic… so many different strategies that it was quite hard to follow, but once we got to 10 laps till the end, when it was clear what all were doing, it got epic!

  7. Good race, a little bit of everything, also good to see key figures having some decent battles. Eight from me.

    1. Oops, double post, delete one if you like.

  8. Cant be 10. Because that was last year at china. But pretty stellar. Stayed up for history. and some serious combat among top drivers for p2.

  9. What a race 10/10! 3 races, 3 different winners, 3 different winning constructors……I think we’re in for very exciting season.

  10. even if it made some milestone and actions, I can’t rate so high.

  11. Quite simply 10. I doubt we’ll see any other race this year where 2 odd seconds separate 12 frontrunners during the latter stages of the race. And the ballsy wheel to wheel racing? 10/10.

    1. At one stage late in the race I noted that second to thirteenth were covered by 11.1 seconds.

  12. Not sure I can give it higher than 7. Very dull first 3/4, which most people seem to have forgotten.

    1. Actually ended up giving it an 8, as the end was great. But 10? Really?

      1. Same. The ending was brilliant, but the beginning was rather boring.

        1. I don’t quite understand the people saying this. The beginnning certainly wasn’t as exciting as the end but I certainly wouldn’t say it was dull. Maybe we’ve just been spoiled by the first couple of races this season!

          1. It was in no way gripping for me. It was a procession, and I found myself bored during the middle.

          2. I gave a 9. The early part was not as exciting but working out various strategies and trying to get a good read on the race kept me engaged.

          3. I thought it was tense, with drivers having close fights for position more or less through the field, at least behind Rosberg?

            Maybe you saw right through all the strategies @matt90 and @victor, and knew who’d fall away, but even then, how fast people could move up through the field was unpredictable and dependent on the drivers themselves, making it a long game. For me at least.

      2. yeah, honestly. The first bit was VERY boring. If this one is a 10, Brazil 2008 is a 2 million.

        I mean, it was exciting… but not THAT much.

        1. I guess it depends on the teams or driver you support. It was very exciting a 10 I’d say. Seems like Ferrari is your team.

          1. I support McLaren and have been waiting on Rosberg’s first win for a while. And regardless, it’s rate the race, not rate the result. Baseless assumptions when people have actually clearly described their reasons won’t get you very far.

          2. I’m far from being a Ferrari fan. I like Rosberg, I like Button, and the result wasn’t too bad for me.

            I don’t get my preferances mixed up with the rating I give to the race. I like good races regardless of who ends up winning.

            And for me, this one doesn’t come close to the Malaysian GP. That was a real thriller. This was ok, but not as good and certainly not a 10.

    2. It wasn’t dull at all. You can’t expect wheel to wheel racing for the entire gp. Instead like most f1 fans, we enjoy watching each driver and team attempt and rethink different strategies on the fly. For example Webber had a comparatively uneventful race and yet knowing he was chewing through that front left tyre through the first part of the race, he had a hell of a last stint to finish 4th.

      1. I don’t expect the kind of action we had at the end throughout an entire GP. But in a race that’s going to be rated at 9 or 10 I need to see exciting racing spread through the duration, even if it’s just a midfield battle. Either that or a fight for the lead. Strategy is slightly interesting to me, but not enough for me to find what I thought was processional as thrilling. I was also frustrated seeing driver coming out of the pits in traffic, whereas otherwise we may have seen closer fights.

      2. Sure, but if you’re going to rate a race, then 10 would be a GP with action on track during the whole race, like at Sepang for instance, or Canada 2011.

        For me, this was good, but just not as good as to give a 10. I guess @matt90 isn’t complaining about the race either…

        1. @fer-no65 I don’t agree – a race can be exciting without wall-to-wall position swapping and collisions. There’s tension and anticipation as well.

          No, the opening stages of today’s race weren’t rip-roaring, but it was clear from the strategy situation that it was developing in a way that was going to give us some excitement.

          And there was the uncertainty over whether Rosberg would be able to make his tyres last. It’s a pity the problem at Button’s stop (or, indeed, Hamilton’s grid penalty) prevented us from seeing how it would have played out in a ‘normal’ situation, but that’s racing.

          And of the two races you mentioned, both of them had pretty lengthy safety car periods (Canada especially) which I suspect a fair few will have marked them down for.

          1. @keithcollantine I understand all you say, but… would you really rate it 10 out of 10?

            I mean, it was a great race, I really enjoyed it. The first bit wasn’t top-tip for me anyway, but really… 10/10?

            It’s a matter of perspective, I guess. I said 8/10, which is good anyway…

          2. I agree, but in that situation I at least like to see drivers being pressured. i remember Turkey 2010 as a particularly good example- I was gripped by that race all the way through, because even before Vettel crashed into Webber it was very tense having a 4-way fight for the lead. For whatever reason I didn’t get any real tension through the middle of this race. It probably didn’t help that I don’t tend to bother with live timing and I don’t think the BBC did a very good job keeping you clear about the race situation, particularly with the movements of the Red Bulls who I saw as quite suddenly finding themselves in good positions after they’d stopped or those around them had stopped.

  13. 10 even though I could have shook perez for holding up Hamilton so badly haha.

    1. Perez had every right to fight for that position. Blame Mclaren for pitting him into so much traffic such that his tyres were getting worn trying to get past those cars. If not because the DRS wasn’t too helpful, Hamilton may well have finished about 6th or 7th because both Webber and Vettel were ahead.

      1. Hamilton went from 8th to 3rd in ten laps and not all his passes where DRS he made a number of passes on the inner field to.

    2. And I could have shook Di Resta and Grosjean for waving people by.

      I absolutely loved it when Di Resta’s got the message “You’re still in a race”. What a gurke.

      1. If you have a chance to catch and pass the guy in front of you it’s stupid to waste time trying to stop a faster car from passing you, this is the lesson Massa needs to learn.

        1. That is all Massa does lately. Spoil faster driver’s race and be told to let Fernando pass.

          1. I’d kind of assumed that was a deliberate tactic, Massa letting Alonso past (on another tyre strategy) and holding the rest. Can’t see anything wrong with that, except maybe for Massa, but he’s not really performing well enough to justify Ferrari’s race tactics not being tuned entirely to Alonso.

        2. Agreed, but leaving the door wide open is plain ridiculous. They don’t have to defend like their life depends on it but at least try to make it look like a race. There’s a difference between defending while preserving the tyres and just letting others get by.

          Especially Grosjean’s move was unbelievable stupid. First he let’s Hamilton through as if he’s being lapped and then he decides to try and get the spot back around the outside, fails miserably and goes off losing even more places…

          That probably did wonders to his tyres…

    3. Hamilton’s main problem was actually Massa. He was the one who was difficult to pass as he was on pretty new tryes. This caused Lewis to lose time and damage his tyres so that, by the time he reached Perez, the tyres weren’t up to it. It’s a shame because he had been looking very quick up until his 2nd stop, and was also very quick after the 3rd.

      1. Yes, I agree Massa was a major roadblock for Hamilton I think @jleigh, and McLaren should have probably taken him into account more in their strategy; it’s no wonder HAM would be a bit more cautious with him now after last year, and Massa would hold him up, if only to help Alonso have more of a shot at some points. But in the end HAM still got second, and Ferrari were too slow, so I guess it didn’t change much for the WDC or WCC anyway.

  14. Great stuff, that train of cars all going for second at the end – amazing. Raikkonen falling like what 12 places!?! What a feel good podium that was. Nice stuff, left me smiling.

  15. “It feels like there are 30 cars on track” – Maryin Brundle

    Very exciting race, with almost no field spread at all. 10/10

    1. I just wonder whether anyone else heard this comment.

      1. No – We were all watching the BBC instead. ;-)

        1. Lol, so true. It pains me even more paying my bloody Sky sub after watching the Beeb’s superior coverage. With one exception, Eddie Jordan – what ceaselessly irritating little twerp.

          I did miss Brundle though and that quote just about sums up why.

      2. Yes I heard it, and it was quite accurate. It felt like an oval race at times (which is a good thing).

    2. It was like watching some spec series @David-a with the cars being so close together, not often we get that in F1.

  16. 9/10. Had to take off a point because in the end the pit lane mechanics twice ruined what could have been big factors in an even better race.

    1. Good point, without those two issues it might have been a three way battle at the front including one driver looking for a first one, one driver fighting for a serious championship attempt and possibly the greatest driver of all time trying to show he’s not completely over the hill. Though in that case the long train battling behind might not have seemed quite so exciting.

  17. Good race, 7/10

  18. The beginning was quite boring, the potential of the grid didn’t materialise. The end was awesome though. A shame McLaren screwed up Button’s stop – having a potential fight for the win would have made it fantastic.

  19. Oh My GOD! I thought Mrs LolaF1 was going to POP!

    That really is the best race i’ve seen in a long time, so close, so many banzai moments it was fantastic. Let’s hope that this season gives us many, many more races of this calibre :-)

    I shall now have to buy a new sofa after Mrs broke it jumping up & down with excitement on it.

  20. The train of cars made it interesting. The last half the race was good.
    Someone fire that right rear mechanic! Didn’t they learn that last year!?!

    1. No, that was the front left man.

      1. Left hand on the TV screen, but right hand on the car.

    2. Well cant blame the mechanic you see…
      He was doing his job. For whatever reason the wheel failed to be secured he was trying really hard to get it secured but Michael still left. You should have seen the disappointment in his body language when the lollipop man let Michael through even though he hadn’t raised his hand indicating he was done… Well in such tense situations these mistakes can happen. I see this more as a failure to act as a team. Cant put the blame on one man.

  21. Brilliant! For the whole race 2nd to 15th was so close together as if it were a safety car restart.

  22. i give the race a solid eight – dragged in places in the opening, but certainly picked up in the middle, and of course the end too.

  23. I can’t give it 10 because i expect other tracks to be better but it was a fantastic race. well done guys

  24. 8/10 from me. A decent amount of action and a ridiculous amount of confusion! Great to see a new winner and the finish to the race was brilliant. The middle of the race was interesting, but there wasn’t much excitement. Certainly not a 10, but maybe a 9… 9 seemed too much though, so I gave it an 8. Not as good as last year.

  25. Race was superb….not a 10 out of 10 first half was interesting as nobody passed anybody….

    Amazing to think that people are payed to stick out Kimi on soft tires in the end for so long…. and to have him fall in the first stint and not react to McLaren. A bit embarrassing…. Well done Nico Rosberg will be interesting to see if teams catch up to that double drs what will happen….Amazing how there is a host for teams arguing against the double drs But as soon as somebody makes a comment regarding the legality, he has no clue :)

    heheheh children.

  26. Kneejerk reaction from me, Keith will possibly rip it apart in the race analysis:

    The three-stoppers comprehensively destroyed each other’s race (with the generous help of the Massa-train and the Raikkönnen-train).

    The moral is that such a hectic race benefits the cautious, unimaginative, un-racy two-stopping strategy.

    Other than that, Nico would have had trouble staying clear of Jenson, and the Williams cars would have had nothing to do in the top 10.

    1. “The moral is that such a hectic race benefits the cautious, unimaginative, un-racy two-stopping strategy.”

      VERY well said exact thought were going through my mind…. as i was watching that horror on TV ….Kimis strategy in particular seems to be put together with a 4 year old….

    2. Ill back you up. The three stoppers were liked the keystone cops while rosberg ran away wiith the loot.it was good racing but how much time did mclaren lose trying to pass perez and Maldonado about 3 times each? Probably they thought the mbs would just fall back and be dealt with on overlap.

    3. Right– Had Nico gone with a 3 stop race, he would never have been bothered by Button even remotely. He would not have ended up behind any of the trains, either, and he would have been able to drive faster and harder on the tires he had effectively giving him more space between him and #2 during the early part of each stint. c’mon now, think.

      1. I think we where talking about other drivers as Nico had plenty in the pocket…

      2. “He would not have ended up behind any of the trains”

        I don’t think you can absolutely be sure of that. It’s enough to get stuck behind a single two-stopper for just a couple of laps and you’re strategy goes down the drain, even if an actual “train” does not build up behind you during this time.

        Rosberg’s advantage before the last round of pit stops was never large enough to make him completely immune to such an outcome.

    4. I reckon Ros. had the pace to win on 3 stops if they had gone that way. Vettel had one less stop than than Webber but that didn’t work out for him. Kimi needed an extra stop as did the Saubers. You can’t blame the teams that got there tyre wear predictions right for being held up by the teams that got it wrong.

      1. Kimi and Sergio did need an extra stop, but Kamui seemed to be on a regular three-stopper.

        The dividing line is not between “teams that got there tyre wear predictions right” and “the teams that got it wrong”.

        It was between the number of pit stops.

        Webber and Vettel were so close in the end because one run the frustrating 3-stop race, the other the fortunate 2-stopper.

        Button lost the chance to chase down Rosberg because one run the 3-stop race, the other the 2-stopper.

        Kobayashi lost out to the Williams (and Grosjean’s Lotus) because of the same reason.

        No-one could tell in advance that a certain pit stop strategy will prove to be so superior to the alternative one across the board. It was pure luck, of which you needed as much in China as in any rain-affected madness.

    5. There was nothing hectic about that race (well, maybe apart from those two pit-stop blunders that definitely affected the outcome). Pardon for stating the obvious, but race strategies are not a gift from heaven, they are produced by the drivers and race engineers and take into account a lot of factors, most importantly – the ability of a driver to lap at a certain speed for a certain amount of time. If a driver is unable to do so, he runs into trouble.
      The race was fairly tactical for the first 2/3, and those who planned according to their abilities have come up ahead of those, who, like Raikkonen and Sauber boys, clearly overestimated their abilities to preserve their tyres. But there were absolutely no ‘force majeure’ like rain or pace cars to make the race hectic.

      1. If you really knew who was actually where throughout the race in terms of strategy (whether it was their real position or a glory position to enjoy just before pitting, how many pit stops for them yet to remain, whether they will return to clear air or the back of a train, tyre wear issues, etc.), then I applaud you, and then perhaps for you it wasn’t hectic.

        I saw a lot of great overtakers stuck behind others. Either all of them forgot to race and overtake, or, perhaps, there were situations where overtaking was actually really difficult.

        Three-stoppers proved to run the risk of getting stuck much more than is usual at other races, which, if not a ‘force majeure’ in the regular sense, is at least something you cannot really expect in advance, especially not at a track where it’s “so easy” to overtake.

        If “the ability of a driver to lap at a certain speed for a certain amount of time” is, as you say, the most important prerequisite for creating strategies, then saying this race was not hectic seems a contradiction, because the main consequence of the trains was that, for many drivers, it was made next to impossible to actually lap at a certain, pre-calculated speed for a certain amount of time.

        Most of the two-stoppers could basically trundle along, occasionally overtaking or being overtaken not making much of a difference in the long run, while the recurring speed advantage of three-stoppers was again and again nullified by the “sacrificial” two-stoppers (Massa and Raikkönnen, who ultimately lost out, but in the process paved the way for the other two-stoppers).

        1. You only needed to follow what top 8 drivers or so were doing, really. The likes of Petrov, Ricciardo, DiResta etc. didn’t matter. With these Pirellis this race was as regular as it’s going to be this season. Perhaps the teams will improve their tyre consumption a bit as the season progresses, but not by much, since these tyres are designed this way.
          Regarding the strategies, there were definitely some gambles that substituted actual calculations. What in the world gave Raikkonen the idea he can last 27 laps on one set of tyres without losing the pace completely? On the other hand, Vettel has made his tyres last a necessary amount of time (even though he was in traffic all the time) and *almost* got to the podium from P14. Rosberg and his engineers were perfect with the estimation of his ability to preserve the tyres (helped by the lack of on track action, of course), so a 2-stop strategy worked for him like a charm.
          Once again, there wasn’t a default winning or losing strategy this day, it was all down to drivers to make it work. Merc, Macca & RB did (both 3-stop and 2-stop), some others struggled. I do believe we will be seeing a lot more races like that in the future, because with KERS and DRS now neither the track position nor raw speed is the king, but the state of your tyres.

  27. How can you rate THAT race lower than 10? Not even a tenth of a point lower, 10 out of 10, what a spectacle, i was screaming and shouting watching it like never before, it was one of the best dry races i saw since 1996 if not the best. Strategies was all over the place, DRS was perfect (wasn’t it?), racing was as close as it gets, overtaking was clean, bold and exciting…i really don’t know what was wrong with the grand prix to give it less than 10. If the reason is the result, there’s is a separate poll for that. Let me congratulate all my fellow F1 fanatics with an incredible event we just witnessed.

    1. Because it was won by 20 seconds and the outcome was never in serious doubt.

      1. It was in serious doubt, until around 15 laps until the end.

        I can understand why not everyone is rating it particularly high, but I personally rate in nothing under a 9. The second half was an entertainment spectacular.

        1. No. Button was less than 10s up when he stopped and losing gobs of time to rosberg at the time. Button certainly did not express your view in the fia interview. By midway rosberg clearly had the race by the throat. Indeed it was buttons botched stop that precipitated the great but ham web battle. For 2nd.

  28. Think the race showed why we don’t need DRS.

    DRS should be banned ASAP!

    1. I think DRS added to the experience this time…

    2. Drs added the excitement

    3. I don’t particularly like DRS, but it worked fairly well here. I didn’t see too many motorway passes- most of the serious and important passes still happened in the braking zone.

      1. I didn’t see too many motorway passes

        I saw far too many, particularly from Button in the middle part of the race. Only once or twice did the pass actually happen at the hairpin, most of the time the pass was done well before.

        What’s more, the leading driver knew it was inevitable and didn’t even bother to defend, which is a persuasive sign the pendulum has swung too far.

        1. Right,right,right.

        2. Fair enough. I may have just been blinded by the over-taking in the last 10 laps, which seemed to involve more hairpin passes.

          1. i think this race would have been better without drs.

            button made the point that with drs you max out your top speed earlier down the straght which when in a group of cars makes it harder to pass because everyone hits there top speed at about the same point half way down the straght.
            with no drs & just the natural slipstream it takes longer to pick up speed & everyone hits there max speed at different points which produces better racing.

            compare the racing down that straght here with drs to races before drs & you easily see that the racing down this straght pre-drs was better.

            when drs was announced they said that some races would be run without drs (for some reason this hasnt occured yet) & i think this is one of them that should have no drs in the future as i dont think its needed.

          2. “compare the racing down that straght here with drs to races before drs & you easily see that the racing down this straght pre-drs was better.”
            Sorry, no it was’nt.

            “button made the point that with drs you max out your top speed earlier down the straght which when in a group of cars makes it harder to pass because everyone hits there top speed at about the same point half way down the straght.
            with no drs & just the natural slipstream it takes longer to pick up speed & everyone hits there max speed at different points which produces better racing.”

            If, on a 1km straight cars are hitting the limit to early, that,s not
            the fault of DRS, it’s the fault of wrong setting’s causing the car to
            be hitting the rev limiter.

            Overall, I think, after seeing many car’s in a DRS train, the team,s’ , are obviously, not setting the cars
            up correctly, to use DRS correctly.

            Maybe ,in the future, team,s can find a solution to the fact that thier cars are hitting the limit so early on a 1km straight.

  29. Off to a slow race start, but the last third of the race was amazing ! So many overtakes, fights and a dukes of hazzard action from webber! Shame for Raikonnen, but what a race!! 9/10

  30. Way to much confusion to thoroughly enjoy it as a proper race, though obviously very exciting as a brawl.

    1. They should ban overtaking, keep it easy to follow.

      1. For a truly great race, there is a proper middle-ground. I don’t like the chess-game type races that are all about strategy, but neither a relentless, random “fist fight” like this. Did I enjoy the individual scraps happening all the time? Yes, I did, and they will make excellent material for race (and season) highlights. Did those scraps add up to any meaningful race? No.

        1. i agree.

          its why i dont think this was as great a race as people here seem to think. yes the individual scraps were fun to watch, however as a race it wasn’t that good.

          i think people today have either forgotten or simply don’t get what a proper race actually is. they see a million passes & go on about how great it was yet never look at the full picture.

          its why so many people are turning off nascar now, what you get over there now is not a race & people are finally starting to see that & those who want to see a proper race & now turning off.
          i predict that another 2-3 years of this style F1 & people will do the same.

          1. +1 its not about number of passes, but how fiercly fought is the competition.

  31. Have to say having been following F1 for 30 years this was the most confusing & difficult to follow race I’ve ever watched.
    The tyre wear & pit stops make things impossible to follow even with the timing, tracking & various incar images.

    also didn’t like how racing in places was harmed because of the ridiculous amount of tyre marbles.

    this isn’t the f1 i grew up loving since the age of 4 sadly, far too artificial & gimmickey for my liking :(
    Was good drs was totally ineffective although most the passes that were done with drs were still a bit too easy, think we can do without such a silly gimmick if im honest, certainly added nothing to the race or any other i’ve seen with it used.

    1. funny as that’s the f1 I watched by the time I got into it. trains of cars, few passing opportunities because there was no drs, plenty of marbles and a runaway winner. The only difference is that this time around passing was possible.

      1. At best DRS is a band-aid, but when we used to see these processional racing atleast they were going at each other, now look at them Vettel on a 2 stop could not be passed by Button or anyone for almost 10 laps, what do you call that? Not even an attempt by Button he was drifting a second behind doing nothing.

        Why do you think there was a big train of cars, because nobody could pass others either offline or be too agressive, cause you have to make it to the end with this set of tires? O really, is this an endurance race?

    2. I had no trouble following what was going on. It’s pretty easy to understand that if someone stops in a certain lap frame what strategy he’ll be using.

      I agree with DRS though. For some (Renault powered cars) it didn’t work at all and for others (Mercedes powered cars) it was far too easy.

  32. That was phenomenal. The kind of race that when crazy people ask me why I care about Formula 1 (that’s a ton of people where I live in Hawaii), I’d show tape of this. 9/10. If Nico had more challengers for the lead, that would’ve sealed the 10.

    1. Hello there fellow Hawaii F1 fan :)

  33. Just. Plain. Awesome. This is the race I will point people to when they ask “why F1?” Superb.

  34. Finally a race worth a 10! How could it get any better? Lots of great racing, and first pole and race for Rosberg in one weekend… amazing, loved it!

    1. *race-win

  35. 10! Last 15 laps were simply incredible.

  36. In the first 3 races, we have had 3 different teams on the top step of the podium, 6 different drivers of 5 different teams have been to the podium, with the previous World Drivers Champion and the World Constructor Champion only managing a single podium position till now. This is going to be a glorious season!

    Ferrari would be happy with this as this means nobody has really run off with the championship yet, and they wouldn’t fall behind too much till Barcelona where they are hoping to bring a major change in the car. They would be hoping Webber, Schumacher, Raikonnen and Williams team also get in the mix in Bahrain!

  37. DRS banned or not.. but one of the best races I have seen.. even young GP2 guys contributed well to take this to another level of excitement..

    Congrats to Nico Rosberg for his 1st win after 111 races..
    Button shows again that he can race in dry..
    and Hamilton is the most consistent driver (3rd position in 1st 3 races)..

    Team mate wars getting spicier at Mclaren, RedBull, Sauber, Williams, and hopefully, Mercedes would be another name in this list..

    1. Webber 4th. position in 1st. 3 races.

  38. 9. Great race, the first 40 laps were not boring. It was fascinating to see teams punt on a strategy and guess how it might work out!

    Would have been a 10 if Mclaren hadn’t mucked up Buttons pit. We would have a fight for the win as well as Hamilton sithing through the pack for 3rd.

    Can’t complain though, once again a great race!

  39. Very unpredictable race. Excellent. Lots of overtaking and nobody crashed out.

    Nico’s first win, well done to him. I must say he was a bit lucky given Button’s bad pits. In terms of action, I think Hamilton was the driver of the race for me.

    Very disappointing that MSC retired again.

  40. First half of the race was very boring I thought, but the excellent racing at the end more than made up for it. 8/10, was absolutely delighted with Rosberg’s first win

  41. sid_prasher (@)
    15th April 2012, 10:15

    Going with 9. What a close race it was…it is rare to see the top 12 bunched so close together. Totally gutted for Kimi, i guess he will now realize how different Pirelli tyres are to the Bridgestone ones.
    Another hard race for Alonso – happy to see Massa being a bit more competitive but in such a tight field – still no points.
    Annoyed on Schumi’s behalf and delighted for Nico!

  42. Fantastic race, had me on the edge of my seat all race! … It just needed a showdown for the win.

  43. it was a good race in terms of ontrack action, However with all the pit stops & tyre chaos there was no real flow to the race whihc made it incredibly hard to follow as a race.

  44. Ending brings it up 2 to 9

  45. How did Nico do it. I mean I thought the Mercedes was supposed to be horrid on its tyres yet Nico seemed to be softest on his tyres? A complete turnaround yes?

  46. i think so much was going on thr FIA couldnt keep up with the action…. definitely a 10

  47. 10/10 absolutly brilliant race! So much overtaking all through the field. One of the most exiting races for a long time for me.

  48. Sean (@spaceman1861)
    15th April 2012, 10:21

    Wikid race 9/10 would have been 10/10 if i had won my bets :P

  49. excellent race. 9/10.
    It would have been 10/10 if all that fighting was for 1st place.

  50. Better than last year! 9/10

  51. 8.

    It would have been a 10 if not for Rosberg having it easy at the front and DRS. DRS aside it was a very exciting race.

  52. I voted 8 – the first few laps were actually pretty dull and most of the action was pitstop related, but the last few laps were brilliant with some fabulous racing. Well done to Nico / Marigold!

  53. 9. So nearly a perfect dry race. Up until Button’s botched stop, we had no idea who would win, come second, third, fourth, any of them! Even when Nico had it in the bag, from third down all was in doubt. Fantastic to watch.

    And to top it all off, a new Grand Prix winner and (I think) only the third son of a race winner to win a race himself. The other two (Hill and Villeneuve) became world champions, so a good omen for Rosberg.

  54. Awesome Race….haha Kimi went from Hero to Zero in just a lap….this shows how close everyone is….Amazing Race…
    Felt bad for Raikkonen and Schumacher..

  55. 10/10, shame there was no real battle for 1st, it would make this race an instant classic

  56. I think 8. Great race, but probably in the middle part everyone was more focused on waiting, rather than on overtaking. It was a good thing because they were all so close and the last part of the race was fantastic. But it was a little bit boring.
    But then, no battles for the first place, so the vote goes down a little.

  57. 7/10. Good race, but the first 30+ laps was really boring. The DRS was pretty stupid as well.
    The last part was amazing, but there could have been more of a battle for the lead.
    The last third of the race was a 9/10, maybe even 10/10, but the rest of the race was worse then average.

  58. that’s a 9 from me. Super fun race to watch. until the last 8 laps it was not clear who was going to take that second place let alone the third. Lots of overtaking and the German cucumber looking perplexed… couldn’t be better.

    1. Typical childish response.

  59. Intense final half, but not much in the first. No fight with Merc. 8/10

  60. 9/10

    Great Race, no battle for the lead at the end.. that’s pretty much it!

  61. To me today showed that Button IS underrated and that he is indeed the real deal, the great prodigy Hamilton was kept honest… This lad Button is good.

    1. Indeed. To my surprise he is also the 2nd most experienced driver out there! (1st obviously Schumacher)

    2. @gorgonzola.
      Your comment is just like saying because Schumacher DNF, he is the worst driver in F1, and Rosberg is the greatest ever.
      Button is a very fast driver no doubt, but his he was released into less traffic but the last one, even at that, he only had 4 cars to get past, while 6amilton had to get past 7 to finish right behind him.

      If I had to make a judgement based on the race, I’d say both drivers are about level or even say Hamilton is better.

      Team strategy rules.
      hamilton was ahead of Webber but after they both stopped, Webber was 2 places ahead without even passing Hamilton on track.

      Look at thw whole picture then arrive at a well informed conclusion.

      When 2 race drivers in one team are on the same pit stop strategy, there in only one optimum pit stop especially like today when the field was very competitive, it is then left to the team to chose who gets the best time to stop. And inthis race it was Button.

      1. In the two races both of them finished Button was ahead. That’s the only conclusion that will possibly matter in the end. What a way to ruin an honest comment with Hamilton apology talk where it isn’t needed.

        1. And who made you judge of what direction a comment should take. If you felt i put a damper on your feel good moment I have no regrets. And I am no apologists.
          If you are happy to see a driver finish ahead of another, I am happier when they both have a straight forward race.
          So no need to get too emotinal over a comment that takes more than just the final result into perspective.

          1. When you accuse a team of favouring one driver over another and offer nothing to support it, you can’t expect people to take you seriously.

          2. Keith I said Button got the best strategy, I didn’t say he was favored. Besides he was ahead, so it was proper that he got preferential treatment.
            The main point of my post is simply that if I was an employer of racing drivers, I can’t just go into a results archive and use that as the only basis for employment, I also have to take into context the perculiar scenarios each race went through.
            That is why I used Rosbergs win as an example. He won, schumacher didn’t finish through no fault of his. But Schumacher was running second even though many seconds back.
            Do we then say Schumacher is useless because he has only scored one point in 3 races?
            In another post I had said Mclaren denied Button a chance to challenge Rosberg, does that also make me biased against Button?

            Consistently I say the Mclaren strategy crew are not often doing a good job and they are losing out on valuable points. Mclaren got a 2 – 3, but it was so nearly 4 – 5 or 5 – 6 or 7.

            I did not accuse the team of bias, although I have in a few previous races, all Itried to highlight was that finishing position doesn’t tell the true story about a driver’s performance.

            Finally I believe you are becoming a bit biased by reading meanings into my posts that are not even there.

          3. You’ve made the same claim several times in the past, you never provide anything to back it up – and you still haven’t.

    3. I don’t think Button is underrated,there is no doubt that his talent with the new tyre has given him great confidence. His performances have increased whilst his team mates have reduced, I said that last year that with the current even softer compounds his advantage over Lewis would show even more.I see nothing in the first three races to change my mind. I would love to see a good dry race again with proper racing tyres ,but I am afraid these are lost to Antiquity. As are the skills of seat of the pants racers like Lewis. Comments suggesting it is good for Lewis to drive without flair amaze me.

  62. Judging by the bloody stubs that were once my fingernails, I’d say it was a pretty good race.

    1. same here… pretty nerve racking race but fun to watch.

  63. that race would have been a 10 if there was a shunt at the beginning

  64. Can’t give this a 10, but a strong 9. Would have been 10 if Mclaren hand’t been let down by the wheel gun and Jensen would have been fighting Nico for P1. Best race I’ve seen in a long time!!

    1. How about if Schui hadn’t been let down by the wheel gun and Jensen had been fighting him for second. I think your ( and many others) prejudices are showing.

  65. Maybe I watched a different race to many here. The first 3/4 was very dull. Any chance of a fight for the win was ended with Button’s last pit, the DRS didn’t work and the overtakes were a mainly result of tyres falling off the cliff and it was fairly predictable who was going to suffer (i.e. the ones who 2 stopped). Obviously the ones who didn’t suffer so much deserve a lot of credit – Grosjean, Vettel and of course Rosberg.

  66. Hamilton will be 2012 world champion if he keeps coming 3rd

  67. 8/10 a little dull for the first half of the race but last 10 laps were AMAZING……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

  68. 10 – 9 for the awesome race +1 because I got to see it live! Go Nico!

  69. Boring first 40 or so laps, but after that…damn. I just wish Michael and Jenson weren’t so unlucky with their pit stops. Sucks that Lotus compromised Kimi’s race with that pathetic strategy as well (although I have to hand it to Massa for keeping him at bay for as long as he did).

    9/10

  70. Great race but above all great story, yes the pole guy has some leverage about tactic but Daimler accionists were about to pull the plug and now Brawn is yet again on the top of the world showing other sponsors and former teams that patience is key on F1, yesterday i recall some Rosberg almosts thankfully today he did it another GP winner, there are alot of champions and rac winner on F1 for those who love WRC just remind that only 21 rally drivers have ever won.

  71. 10. Easilly. Fantastic racing, a new winner, and plenty of overtakes. Fantastic.

  72. 7/10

    Yes we had a surprising result, but it wasn’t overly exciting for me personally.

  73. Normally limit races where all the action is behind the leader to no greater than 9, but the fact that it was Rosberg’s maiden win was somewhat special.

    Also, given his previous record at the circuit and the tire degradation suffered to-date, I wasn’t completely certain his car would hold out until the checkered flag.

  74. Loved Brundles comment: ‘I haven’t been this disappointed since Shrek 2’

  75. As usual, I’m a bit more conservative than the rest. I gave it an 8. Was great, really!

    1. I will do the same shortly alex!

      That was a great race that really had a lot of good racing in it for the first half, and then we had Webber doing the wheelie setting of Vettel to have a good go at Kimi start off the frenzy in the last third to make it special!

  76. 9/10
    How was the first 40 dull?!?!? I loved all the confusion with the strategies. seems to me that some people don’t like it if they have to use their brains to try and figure out the real race positions when people are on different strategies.
    Personally i love it.

    DRS was spot on. Not too easy like last year. A shame it gets difficult when everyone has DRS at the same time, but what can people do about that??

    Kimi strategist needed shooting. should have stopped around lap 48 and would have been taking candy from babies atthe end, most likely pushed thru to 7th or 8th.

    So much great overtaking and wheel to wheel action, hard but clean. Only reason i’m not giving it 10 is because we were robbed button hunting down nico for the win. in a normal pit stop scenario he would have come out around 12 seconds behind with 17 laps to go and nico would hAve had to push and tyres wouldve been more marginal at the end… still what a great championship we’re looking at. 3 races, 3 different winners from 3 different constructors. Pecking order seems to be emerging too now in a

  77. 6. Boring start, but the last 20 laps or so saved quite a lot.

  78. Sorry mobile post fail. was going to say that a pecking order is finally starting to emerge on normal race pace too.
    Mclaren
    Red bull = Mercedes
    Lotus = Williams = Sauber = Ferrari
    Force India
    torro rosso

    But mclaren have the benefit over red bull because their quali is good as well as race pace…

    1. Agreed.
      But it will be also very telling in the hot conditions of Bahrain next week, at the stop-go circuit with few fast corners.

      1. Generally agree but would put the McLaren slightly ahead of RBR all-round.

    2. Not so sure about the Mercedes. We have to wait for a few more races, but looks like they are on pace of McLaren (or maybe even better).

  79. Got to be at least a 9. The ideal race ought to be more exciting at the end than earlier on.
    The slow buildup with different strategies playing out contributed to the spectacle, IMO. Couldn’t believe how early Hamilton first-stopped: a great gamble which didn’t quite come off.
    Even more impressive was the sight of Grosjean, Maldonado, et al contributing to the racing spectacle without shunting anyone.
    I don’t mind the odd pitstop screwup, but two mistakes affecting two potential winners is a bit excessive – so 9 rather than 10.

  80. Dunno, fellas, i was excited like crazy from start to finish with all the action going on. After emotions turned down a bit i see the point of giving it less than 10, but still feeling like it was a nothing less than a perfect motor race for me.

  81. This race bored me a little, and although the last 15 laps were among the best we’ve seen in Formula 1 for a while now, I still wasnt overly thrilled.

    I feel that cockups in the pitstops cost us a great race, Schumacher’s front right not going on and Button having trouble with his rear left. I suspect Schumacher proibably wouldnt have finished on the podium, but I would like to have seen how he would have got on later in the race. I would have love to have seen Button trying to muscle his way past Rosberg in the dying few laps too.

    The last few laps were great, and Rosberg drove a superlative race, there just wasnt a whole lot else going on. The first 75% of the race was pretty featureless, had little over taking. The track and surroundings are dull and grey.

    Hopefully China will be dumped off the calender soon.

    1. Can’t disagree with you more. There are always exciting races in China and this was no exception. And what do you care about the track surroundings? We already had one great racetrack(Turkey) dropped because of track surroundings and lack of local fans, we don’t need another one. Valencia on the other hand…

      1. Excitment is relative in China. In 2007 there were less than 10 overtakes in the race, thish sas been the case in other years. The two best races there have been here have been due to the weather, 2009 and 2011. If I hadnt need to have been up early this morning I would have slept through the race, got up at 9ish and seen the best part of the race.

        The surroundings do count. When the camera is looking out and all there is smog to back a grey landscape, it’s a little depressing. Furthermore, on the backstraight the smog was awful. In any other country you’d have seen more of the cars and been able to identify them easier had it been on a similar length piece of track.

        I feel there would have been more excitment on a European track than this Tilke-snoredrome. Hopefully Bernie will pull the plug on the track soon.

  82. DRS, KERS and tyres have made for excellent racing, I reckon F1 have now got the balance right ! There’s going to some interesting results over the next few races, as the other teams attempt to implement double DRS . Imagine if the Double DRS had been banned though….the battle of 2nd-12th would have included 1st place !!!

  83. 8/10 for me.

    For the first three quarters of the race the interest was in watching how drivers and teams were going with their separate strategies, and watching how they were developing their races.

    The race built to a great crescendo towards the end with a lot pf drivers on different strategies converging together in the last 15 laps and that created a lot of on track action while the strategies and overtakes panned out.

    I’m undecided on the effectiveness of DRS in the race. Whilst some overtakes were done halfway down the back straight and seemed easy, at other times eg. Vettel behind Raikonen at the front of the train towards the end, cars couldn’t overtake in the DRS zone.

  84. Great race – 9/10. Battles all the way through the field except for first.

    The wheel to wheel action between 2nd to 9th was fantastic to watch and, had that been for the lead, it would have been a 10.

    What a start to the season – three races in and we have three different winners from three different teams.

  85. 10/10

    There wasn’t a battle for the lead in the end, but the fault for that falls solely on Mclaren mechanics. Apart from that. the race was fantastic in every aspect.

    Come to think of it, Shanghai track almost always throws a good race. I can’t think of a boring race there, maybe apart from 2008.

  86. 9/10 for me. Couldve been a 10/10 if it weren’t for the pit stop errors for Schumi and Button, which I think would’ve given us a battle for 1st.

    The reason noone was passing with DRS was because they were all hitting the limiter very early in the DRS zone! I guess the gearings weren’t set up to take slipstreams into account – because you’d rarely get those in Qualy.

    1. The reason noone was passing with DRS was because they were all hitting the limiter very early in the DRS zone!

      which is why drs is a joke, without drs today we would have seen a lot more racing down that straght like we did in the pre-drs era.

      drs drops so much drag that there hitting max speed & thus the limiter very early on the straght. with no drs & just the slipstream it takes you longer to hit max speed/limiter which produces better racing.

      i think there are circuits which feature very long starghts where the racing would be better without drs (not taht i think drs produced good racing anywhere) & this track is one of them.

  87. was it exciting, kind of.
    was it a good RACE, definately not!

    f1 isn’t about racing anymore, its not even a sport anymore. f1 has become way too artificial for my liking.
    think i’ll start doing something else with my sunday’s from now on. will be a bit odd not watching f1 for the 1st time in 24 years but i simply cannot stand what f1 has become with drs, kers & these ridiculous tyres.

    i want to watch racing & what we see in f1 now is not racing!

    1. Agree, it is starting to get processional. Qualifying and keeping track position counts more than anything now. Everyone seems to have figured out that pushing car to limit is pointless. I want to see some racing!

      1. Voices in the wilderness I am afraid, I think the tyres are the worst part. DRS was brought in to allow a faster car to overtake even when being held up by the violent effect of the downforce from the car in front which caused so many problems . A better route would have been a total rethink to remove the downforce effect , but adding these ridiculous tyres has removed the real racers edge so my question is why ?

        1. adding these ridiculous tyres has removed the real racers edge

          No, it’s moved us back towards real racing and away from the situation of 2007-09 where drivers basically never had to worry about tyre management.

          Now they do, which is the way it usually has been in F1. And today it produced some superb racing.

          Why anyone would want to go back to unchallenging tyres and predictable, processional racing is beyond me.

  88. It was a close race, but i was very dissapointed overall. It was so hard to pass due to all the rubber off racing line. What is with these Pirellis, no one was pushing to overtake for fear of destrying their tires or runnig off track (like what happend to Alonso).

    There was a comment that Pirellis suffer higher thermal degradation in addition to physical wear. They need to fix that, you can have a tire that lasts only 15 laps but it damn well be great for atleast 13 of those laps. I think Pirellis lack experiece, hopefully next year will be better.

    For me a race without a fight for victory will always be dissapointing.

  89. I gave it 8/10

    First part quite annoying, no serious manouvers with a long train.
    But last part …….well it was EPIC, made me to jump on the sofa.

  90. I voted 9. The first part of the race reminded me of fuel stop days when you had to concentrate on the timing trying to work out who was doing what. The last part of the race was just EPIC and a new winner is always welcome

  91. Simply brilliant race but isn’t it always in China! There’s something about this combo that should be written in stone. If only anyone knew what that was.

    It’s also great to crown a new winner – and this one was long overdue – quality drive from Nico. Such bad luck for Schuey and what a magnanimous person he is.

    On another note – 3 races, 3 different winners – what a season this is shaping up to be! And champs leader hasn’t even won one yet!

  92. I voted seven. So much was going on I couldn’t really follow it and I wasn’t sure if cars were passing for position or because they were on differing strategies, which sapped my enjoyment of it slightly. Still a good race though!

    1. For me @dan-thorn, that wasn’t a big problem, they way people got past others on a different strategy (or didn’t get past) is a major influence on how far their strategy can get them. I feel that if McLaren had better considered, for example, Hamilton getting past Massa (stopped him progressing for quite a few laps), he might have been ahead of Button in the end, and maybe they might have considered a 2 stopper for Button – though he had less trouble getting past people, just had the bad stop.

      Those things are hard to control, even with a good car and a good strategy, or the race could be simulated; it’s what actually happens when they are all on track that is interesting to see, to me.

      1. I understand the frustration at a driver getting penalised for some that isn’t really his fault, but I think grid penalties are the right option. The driver is the focus but he’s still part of a team – if a driver gets a penalty in a race for, say, speeding in the pit land and loses places, the team have lost constructor points despite it not being their fault. To me it’s the same thing and they shouldn’t be separated.

        If a car is ineligible for constructors points, then if they finish in the points they’re taking points away from whoever they finish ahead of, which isn’t fair on the team that have managed to build a reliable car…

        1. If a car is ineligible for constructors points, then if they finish in the points they’re taking points away from whoever they finish ahead of

          Not necessarily, it would depend on how the rule is written.

  93. Utter brilliance. Thought at the start the DRS wasnt doing enough but i wouldnt change anything except who i predicted!

  94. Would probably have given it a 10, had Rosberg not been the victor.

  95. Good race and once again proof that this season will be played in the midfield. Battles for position all over the place. Strategies and DRS managed to take half-the-fun out of it though. 7 overall for me.

    10 for Rosberg! Schumacher getting another handful of bad luck kinda spoiled it for me as well. Mercedes threw away an easy 1-2 finish here. However, I expect Nico’s win here to take some of the pressure off the team and take some of their eagerness away. This is the actual season starter for them. If they play their cards properly they might very well be in the books for a top 3 constructors’ championship finish.

    McLaren made a podium drive look like an easy job, provided Hamilton’s penalty and Button’s mishap in the pits.
    Good drive by Williams as well. They are starting to look consistent (something amazing if you take Maldonado and Senna’s lack of skills here and there into account).
    Also, glad to see Webber’s understanding of the current car paying off. If he keeps beating Vettel on track this might cause some side-switching inside the Red Bull team which might, in turn, prove very interesting to watch.

    Expected to see more from Sauber, based on the confidence gained last weekend. Faded somewhere between a poor start and poor strategies.

    Raikkonen, Force India and Toro Rosso, today’s biggest disappointments, except for the Mercedes vs. Schumacher affair of course.

    3 races down, M. Schumacher – 1 pts / F. Massa – 0 pts. Unbelievable…

  96. The best driver on the grid not to have won, now has. Begs the question, who is now the best driver on the grid yet to have won a race. Here’s the contenders-
    Grosjean
    Di Resta
    Hulkenburg
    Senna
    Maldonado
    Pic
    Glock
    Perez
    Kobayashi
    Vergne
    Ricciardo
    Karthikeyan
    De La Rosa
    Petrov

    For me I’d say Perez or Glock

    1. Slim pickings there. Id say di resta if forced to choose. But none have future wdc written all over them.

      1. Definitely slim pickings. i think Perez could be a future wdc though

    2. I’d say De La Rosa or Glock. Neither of them will get a win though, at least not this year.

  97. I give this race an 8/10. It seemed to have it all – a 1st time underdog-winner, chess-like tactical play with a nice payoff at the end, great wheel-to-wheel battles. It would have been 10/10 if not for two problems. One point I have to subtract because the winner was essentially decided in the McLaren pits, and another one goes courtesy of Ferrari, where once again ‘the most complete driver’ cannot pass his poor teammate without another ‘Fernando is faster than you’-like message.

    1. Actually i think the potential winner was decided on Thursday when Hamilton announced his gearbox change.

  98. Motor_mad (@)
    15th April 2012, 14:55

    5 from me. It was really boring for the majority until the last 10-15 laps, but even then only a few overtakes happened.

    1. Agreed. Gave it a 6, though.

      A walkaway race at one of the worst tracks on the schedule is going to need more than a handful of laps of racing in the midpack to be a good race, to me.

  99. Great Race on all fronts: 8/10
    Nico fantastic first win but, now get in the fight for WC.
    Jenson with letting Nico have his first win, 2nd will do just fine for now.
    Lewis again letting Nico have his day and with Lewis behind Jenson keeps the race to WC tight.
    Mark what a great result passing Vettel on last lap, keep that up, great surprise they didn’t tell you to hold station.
    Vettel finding it a bit tuff having to race without a runaway car are we, but learning different finger positions.
    Massa thanks for backing up the field on your strategy providing a great race at the last.
    Kimi best have a chat with your strategist but thanks for a few exciting moments 2nd to 14th oops!
    F1 please do not go to Bahrain, sport over politics but not at the cost of life.

    1. 9/10 with a fight for first.

  100. Epic race! For me, the highlight of the day:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKxk_7qu06c
    Mark Webber muscle car style lift off. And then finish fourth.
    LIKE A BOSS.

    1. I bet his pants were a bit dirty after that, considering his past experience.

  101. There was a prison break in Pakistan by Taliban and about 300 prisoners escaped and now what to Bahrain . kk

  102. Good race, I gave it an 8. I think I’m giving it an extra point based purely on the result, which I’m not meant to do, but having a new winner is just a cause for celebration in itself, regardless of your preferred driver/team persuasion. The field was so close throughout which makes for a great spectacle. The heavy use of strategy certainly kept me on my toes, it’s not often I use live timing during the race but today I did so.

    Biggest disappointment? Mercedes getting in wrong for Schumacher.

  103. Wasn’t great for the first 30 laps. Then it became quite simply the best 26 laps I’ve ever seen in 20-odd years of watching F1. Outstanding racing.

    If you found that boring you are watching the wrong sport.

  104. This race gets a 10 from me.

    We had:
    • A brilliant drive from a first time winner
    • The thrill of not knowing who was going to win for most of the race
    • Battles up and down the field, with teams having to take risks to try and keep their positions.
    • Lots of traffic that doesn’t have to move to keep the battles even more exciting (which is why they should scrap blue flags!)
    • Lots more stuff here
    • Even more stuff here
    • Yet more stuf here

    This race was just action, action, action. It was a huge thrill to watch and I’m immensely proud of Nico Rosbergs maiden win. The third son of a race winner to be a race winner himself.

    My bladder was pretty full by the end of the race because I could not move out of my chair to go to the loo.

    If every race was like this, F1 would have more fans than football!

  105. 9/10. Great dry race. Dominating win for Rosberg. Alonso scores points. Thats the only time Massa will be leading a GP ever again hahah! McLaren still having problems with the pitstops. Schumachers problem. Kobayashi did the kamikazi fall to 10th I think? Raikkonen got eaten up at the end lost a ton of spots due to the tires I guess. I thought for a second that Vettel was on podium, so happy hes not! Both Williams in the points. Fantastic race all together. Good close racing decent passing. Very happy over here. Looking forward to the next GP. See you in Bahrain. (i guess we are still going)

  106. 9. It could have been perfect if we hadn’t been robbed of Schumi’s presence and Button’s chase for P1 due to faulty wheelguns. I am also very disappointed with Lotus’ strategy blunder to leave Kimi on worn rubber which surely cost him a place in top ten. Still, it was a perfect antidotum after the highly overrated Malaysia GP.

  107. 8. Not much in the way of excitement in the first 40 something laps, but it all built up to fantastic final few laps. Just a shame Rosberg was long gone by that point, it would have been nice to see him under a bit more pressure at the end.

  108. Crazy race. ALO said they did a wrong strategy with 3 pit stops. If McLaren did 2 pit stops, maybe Button won the race and Lewis finished with 30 second less than Vettel. Button and Lewis are better drivers and with better car than Vettel and Webber and they had to fight in last laps

  109. For me it came very close to being a 10, but i gave it a 9. As a die hard Mclaren fan since the 80’s it would have been 10 if it was a Mclaren 1-2.

    It was a great race though, plenty of action and was amazed that before Kimi ran onto the marbles, the field was so close together. wonderful stuff, great action and lovely to see the drivers having a go and being aggressive without making contact.
    I am very happy to see Rosberg get his first win, he thoroughly deserves it, it was long overdue. If the rest of the season is like this, I will be very happy!

  110. 9/10

    I’ve seen a few comments about how this race was harder to follow due to varying pit stop strategies and the multiple trains. I too found myself wondering what happened to certain drivers because announcers weren’t letting you know who was pitting all the time. It was crazy when Raikkonnen dropped back, but the US announcers couldn’t fathom why.

    This brings me to two criticisms with FOM coverage that would make it easier:

    1. Need more information on number of pit stops and tyres currently on cars. I suggest leaving the M or S tyre icons by the names on the timing crawl at the bottom and a number in parentheses for number of stops. Also maybe a * if the drive has met the regulations on using both tyres.

    2. The races desperately need split screen shots in certain situations. Showing two battles or, say, showing one car in the pits, while another is rounding the last corner to see their perspective as that car exits the pits.

    Maybe this could be another thread: What can FOM do to improve the broadcasts?

  111. That really was a fantastic race. Most exciting one so far. Can’t wait to see how this season unfolds.

  112. Congratulations to Nico, I’m delighted for him, he is a really nice guy and he deserves the win :) I am loving this year, partly because of Vettel’s struggles, partly because McLaren are leading, and mostly because of the tight racing. Loving 2012!

  113. What amazed me given the amount of passing that there was no crashes. There were some great passing moves and strong defences but everyone gave each other just enough room.

    Loved Hamilton’s firm but fair moves without any last minute lunges, Loved the scrap between Raikonenen and Alonso.

    After the apprehension of the new passing and defending rules this showed they could race and jostle for position and not one word from the Stewards.

    SO I give 10/10 to the Stewards for staying out of it.

  114. I looked up and saw Lap 56/56 and I didn’t want it to end.

  115. 10 for constant action at the end. Unbelievable! What a season we have here!

  116. Very good idea. Although I’m in the US as well and the SPEED announcers said that Raikkonen was falling back bc he was on old rubber, and he also had that off. As far as the split screen, for sure would be a great thing to have. To be able to see a pit stop (good or bad) they affect the race, but I also want to see what’s going on on-track while in the pits. With all this technology you would think the broadcast would be top tier.

  117. Amazing race, seems like everyone had troubles getting past and as result being harsh on tires constantly pressuring man in front.

    Love to see Nico at last winning a race!!

    Was total failure on Lotus part regarding Kimi. I can’t believe my self that at such level they were in such denial about the situation…what did they expect? Kimi walk on water? If they pitted him for Soft tires 3-4 laps (when he lost pace and started driving defensively) before he started loosing positions. He would have been on fresh set doing 1:40s while most of top10 struggling.

    I mean seriously, he was 11 seconds behind before he dropped pace dramatically. Lets say 25 second for that 3rd pit stop that would put him on 30-40 seconds behind Rosberg, not mentioning he would be gaining 1.5 seconds instead of loosing 2. Total failure on Lotus part. Btw P10 was +43 sec behind Rosberg, he would be top10 if they just pit him instead of hoping for a miracle to last them 15 laps…..

  118. Voted 7 as this was indeed entertaining and close race.

    I was very disappointed by lack of overtaking considering how close cars were. They should have moved DRS zone closer to corner exit. Marbles were terrible through out whole track, making it almost suicidal to do any overtaking even at the end of the straight it was dodgy.

    Button had a nice race, but I think both Lewis and Kimi could have kept better pace with Mercedes in the first part of the race and could have avoided traffic better as the result.

    Thats why its is as ever important in F1 to start as high up as possible, cause even if you have the pace, it’s never granted that you will be able to go through field as many world champions realized today :)

    Grats to Rosberg with maiden win!!! Can’t wait for Bahrain GP!!! So good that it’s a back to back GPs :)

  119. Another dramatic China GP. Better drama than last year. Pity that pit guys ruined Schumi’s podium stand. Waiting to see the king back on podium since he got the machine this year. Congrats nico and mercedes gp.

    I also gave.. 9 out 10 since i agree with most of other ‘s comment that not much battle for No.1.

    Now i hope we will see may other teams how they are going to copy Merc’s Super DRS. Like how the teams were running to copy the Mclaren’s F-duct

  120. Sorry that I don’t have time to read everyone’s comments, but I thought I’d add my own.

    I rated this race a 10. Why? Because I can’t find a single fault with it. I was on the edge of my seat the entire race. Wheel to wheel action all the way. The race was as near perfect as I could imagine.

    If I could rate in percent, it would be 98% as Rosberg storming off in front and the McLaren pitstop error stopped us seeing a battle for first, and Mercedes’ mistake for Schumacher denied us the chance to see him come back with a strong performance. Although I don’t like Schumacher, I was gutted for him.

  121. 9/10, very entertaining, I think a 10 would be a race with several outrageous overtakes and an intense battle for 1st.. Congrats to Nico..
    Now we know why teams were so concerned about Mercs controvertial wing design. After the first two races Merc didn’t seem to be a huge threat in the race. That was refelected in alot of comments here, the opinion was that Merc could only qualify well and hamper strategies.
    It’s interesting that RB and Macca could obviously predict that Merc had the potential to clean up here and knew that they desperately needed to curtail their progress by some means. F1 team management seems to be as much about understanding your opponent and holding them back as finding loop holes making progress yourselves.
    I just love that stuff :)

  122. Excellent, and Bravo to Nico & Mercedes !

  123. Brilliant race I gave it a 9, I was set to give it an 8 until those final 10 or so laps.

    It was a shame Button had that problem at his final pitstop otherwise we may have had a good battle for the victory but I wanted Rosberg to win.

    It felt good being able to watch the full BBC live coverage all weekend, they have done the best they could with the highlights but it can never compare to the full race, I am glad I wasn’t stuck with only a highlights package for this Grand Prix, I enjoyed it so much I ended up watching the repeat broadcast of the race on the afternoon.

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