Rate the race: 2015 Chinese Grand Prix

2015 Chinese Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

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

F1 Fanatic holds polls on each race to find out which fans thought of every race during the season.

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

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2015 Chinese Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (1%)
  • 9 (1%)
  • 8 (8%)
  • 7 (23%)
  • 6 (30%)
  • 5 (17%)
  • 4 (9%)
  • 3 (6%)
  • 2 (2%)
  • 1 (3%)

Total Voters: 870

 Loading ...

1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

You need an F1 Fanatic account to vote. Register an account here or read more about registering here. When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

215 comments on “Rate the race: 2015 Chinese Grand Prix”

  1. Boring, processional, farce at the end. Good overtaking action from Ricciardo and Verstappen but not enough to raise the rating beyond 5, and that’s being generous.

    1. And both Max not finishing and finishing behind SC… what an anti-climax…

    2. I thought Ricciardo struggled today with his overtaking. And even though he was using the old Brembo brakes.

      1. He struggled: it seemed to me he was having problems with his brakes still. He kept trying which is what provided the excitement.

        1. Martin Brundle wanted us to believe Ric had car problems as Ric never pointed that out.

          According to Brundle when his favourite drivers make mistakes it’s the car, for other drivers it’s always just them making mistakes.

    3. Total bore fest! God I hate the new F1. The sport I love is dying!

      The most interesting thing about the entire race was the Button Maldonado fight and accident. Out of curiosity, can anyone think of the last time Button was involved in an accident that was deemed his fault? The only one that comes to my mind is Maylasia 2012 when he ran into the back of Karthikeyan. Other than that, not a single incident comes to mind.

      1. The races in 2014 were generally very good. During the China race Martin Brundle (on SkyF1) noted that the cars this year with the new noses seem to be more susceptible to hot and turbulent air running behind another car. I think he has a point. Unfortunately if correct this takes us back to the more processional races of the mid-2000s before DRS was introduced. I don’t think F1 is dying but I don’t think the first races this year haven’t been as exciting as last year. The next race is Bahrain which was a cracker last year. This will inform us in no certain terms whether the racing has suffered since the first year of the new formula. The Renault engine debacles would seem to indicate that it has because it’s robbed us of a viable competitor. Then again, Ferrari look to have taken their place this year.

        1. I don’t know what could be causing the susceptibility to turbulent air, as far as I remember there weren’t many changes to the cars, and the noses should’t make such a big change. Perhaps they do though, which is interesting for the fans, what do we want more, good racing or ugly cars?

          1. @williamstuart The nose change is a big one, aerodynamically speaking, since it being the first part of the car that comes in contact with the air it affects its flow along the whole chassis. More info here

            http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117352

          2. Maybe less downforce at the front?

      2. I know Button crashed into Alonso in Canada I believe. I think that could have been back in 2011 though, was that the one Button won in the end? Can’t remember properly.

        1. Yeah 2011, best race I have ever seen. Button also collided with Lewis in the same race, he had to do more pit stops than Vettel and had to fight his way back from last.

          1. Lewis drive into the back of button in that case.

      3. I don’t normally comment, but Sir, I think very much alike. I am also long term MotoGP fan and I would suggest you to try it.

        1. The problem is that since introducing V6 engines there are huge gaps between the teams (and the pecking order staying stable througout the season…) so logically there is no action at the front and they are running in team formations. Since 2014 most races are boring, the only excitement came from Hamilton/Rosberg fight but in terms of “interesting moments” there is a lot less action.

      4. The races have been largely processional since the late 90s.

        Watch MotoGP!

        1. I love by bikes, and MotoGP, but it’s not really the same kettle of fish as F1. I enjoy watching the races, but I’m not transfixed to the sector times, watching two drivers battle it out even if they’re not scrapping over the same piece of track.

          One of the things I love about F1 is how subtle the battles can be sometimes. Take Malaysia. Mercedes didn’t seem to realise that they were truly fighting Vettel until part the way through the final stint. Sure, there’s plenty of fighting and overtaking in MotoGP, but the strategic battles are largely about what tyre you pick before the race starts.

          As for saying F1 has been processional since the late 90’s, you must have been watching a different F1 to me.

          1. I was at COTA today and saw the MotoGP race. It was great fun and watching Marquez do his qualifying magic and break the track record on a backup bike in Qualifying yesterday was AWESOME.

            But frankly, the race was easy to predict. We were sitting in the Esses and you could see Marquez was easily going to win from the first lap. He was on hard tire and was still hanging right up there at the front. Just wait a few laps and he was gone…could have easily won by 10 seconds if he wanted to.
            It was good to see Rossi fighting so hard to hang onto a podium spot.

            But it was worth going to, and I’m going again next year. But right now, I’m looking forward to seeing how the WEC race will unfold at COTA! I’m getting more and more into the WEC as they’re doing the technology “right”.

    4. Remember when 2012 had 7 different winners in the first 7 races…

      1. DK (@seijakessen)
        12th April 2015, 22:56

        That’s what happens when you have nothing more than a tire lottery.

        It wasn’t racing…it was a crapshoot designed by Pirelli.

    5. Extremely generous, I’d say. Utterly yawnworthy procession from start to finish. Just another “race” in the new, utterly meaningless F1.

  2. 4/10 dull dull dull…. only gave a 4 because of the fight amongst the back markers and entertainment from the marshalls at the end

    1. Ditto, but a 3 from me.

      1. I see what you did there!

  3. Simon (@weeniebeenie)
    12th April 2015, 8:44

    The ending was probably the most entertaining part. Crowd seemed to think so as well. Better than Australia with a few battles but not by much. 6.

    1. Voted 6 as well. Slightly above average.

      Hamilton controlling the gap to Rosberg with Vettel lurking was quite interesting but nothing really came of it.

      A few battles as well through the field as well made it better than Australia at least.

      1. I voted 6 too, nothing special came from todays race. One of the best parts of the race for me was Raikonens (sorry, can’t spell it) humour and frustration down the radio with the backmarkers.
        Another interesting thing was the Button and Maldonado crash. I don’t think it’s initially Button’s fault, Maldonado is one of those drivers that will double move or chop down on you mid corner in a convincing racing line way. Of course this is biased because I’m a button fan and I can’t stand Maldonado and paid seats in formula one. Maldonado also shouldn’t have been in the race at that moment in time after recieving help from marshalls after his mstake entering the pitlane which if I’m correct isn’t allowed and shows his lack of skill behind the wheel.

        1. Im certainly no Maldonado fan either, but that crash was obviously Buttons fault, and it would had suited him to come out and admit so and apologise.

          1. He did!

          2. @BHJ @Chris Lawson

            He did, I was taking a biased point of view but I’ve seen the replay many times aswell it was obvious button would go up the inside, Maldonado left that gap and shut it off last minute. Button pulled out of the overtake but hit the back of him. It was justice to Maldonado but I think i have a point in my previous comment that he shouldn’t have even been on the track at that point in time.

  4. Marshalls handling Verstappen’s car made this race a seven.

  5. To be honest, I rate the free practices higher than this race…

    1. Watching the wrong channel then!

      1. @neelv27 Did you watch FP2 on Friday? It had plenty of overtakes between Mercs and Ferraris, unlike today’s race.

  6. Positive: good action down the field & top 4 covered by 10 seconds.
    Negative: no close racing towards the front.

    7/10

    1. Yeah exactly what I thought. Would have preferred a bit more of the backing up from Lewis.

    2. Gave the same rating for the same reasons.

      Top 6 was fixed by the end of the first lap, but there were some good battles in the midfield and the Rosberg-Vettel ‘battle’ made it somewhat exciting at the front.

      Ending the race under the SC was just silly.

    3. Also gave a 7, race was ok nothing special, a few entertaining moments and Kimi’s jokes at the backmarkers made me laugh.

      I don’t think they had much choice but to end the race under SC as it took so long to get Verstappens car off the straight!

    4. @james-goulding At the time the safety car came in the top four was covered by more than 20 seconds.
      Good action with backmarkers though, but I gave it a 5.

  7. So it’s back to dull boring processional racing just because Mercedes thumped Ferrari today….. Hmmm ok

    1. Well, where was the excitement? Sure, there was a decent amount of action in the middle of the field, but aside from a few instances where Rosberg, Kimi and Vettel managed to close up on the car in front briefly, not a lot went on up front.

      Lewis deserved the win today, but it would have been nice to see him fight for it. And equally nice not to see such an extraordinarily fast driver hobbled by the need to preserve tyres.

      The best part of the race was the chaos at the end with Verstappen’s car and seeing Ed Moses.

    2. and the reason is Merc made the tires last longer and covered Ferrari every move.
      yes could have been different if Vettel held off on his first stint till Merc had pitted either driver as they admitted they would of most likely gone for white tries.
      now that would have been good to see considering they are a little slower.

  8. 6. Couple of good fights (Verstappen overtakes, RIC ERI and BUT MAL),

    Damn shame for Verstappen too…..

  9. It was your avg China GP. 6! Merc’s got pace perfect conditions today, A little disappointed with the ending to the inter teamate battle at Ferrari, Raikkonen has a marginal advantage on pace but Seb has nerves of steel. Button is going to get a couple penalty points, which is the only not avg thing about today.

    1. @peartree

      Raikkonen had a slight advantage on tyre life at the end. He wasn’t getting closer before the last pitstop.

      1. Alexander (@)
        12th April 2015, 9:30

        Kimi always caught Vettel after they had had their pitstops

  10. First half of the race was tense and pretty exciting between the top four, but it didn’t amount to anything in the end. Hamilton simply always had an answer for Rosberg, and Mercedes an answer for Ferrari and the rest.

    Lewis Hamilton DOTW.

  11. 6.
    It wasn’t that bad, ebnjoyed the first half but the rest was painfully boring. It was a farce that nearly
    , if not all Renault engines caught fire. And the end.. Oh my god. What a form to ruin a promissing finish.

    1. When I saw that Toro Rosso pull to the side of the pit straight with smoke pillowing from it I kept hoping that it was Sainz, not that I don’t like Sainz, it is just that Verstappen had such a good race! I hated to see him end it that way.

  12. Tell you what, at a 2am start I almost shut this race off at 3am. Its only for Verstappen’s great passing and ericson’s great defending along with the 3 way battle between Button, Maldonado and Alonso that made this race a 7 for me.
    Entertaining for sure but undercut attempts don’t keep me awake.

    1. Can you believe that Ericsson was driving that well?!? I was shocked, even knowing that Ricciardio was not exactly having a good day or car.

  13. A generous 6. A slow burner that didn’t come to anything in the end. Verstappen and his great overtakes bumped this race up to a 6.

  14. 8 for the enjoyment of seeing Verstappen cut through the field, 4 otherwise.

    1. I gave it an 8 for having lovely scraps in the midfield as well as seeing a bit of inner team mind games at the front. Bit of a shame about the end, I would have liked to see a fight between Kimi and Seb, but you can’t have it all, I guess.

      1. @bascb
        Any idea when we’ll start seeing the Virtual Safety Car in the races?

        1. Good question, funny how they tested it but now seem to never ever use it, isn’t it @supremacy!

    2. Same here

    3. That lad is great! Last time anyone impressed me that much when they first got into F1 was Alonso in the Minardi. Damn shame the engine burst – he was relentless and so clean… The top dogs better watch out.

  15. Not as terrible s some are making out. Slightly disappointing, but some good overtaking moves, When it was wheel to wheel, it was side by side for a good half lap (MAL / BUT, RIC / ERI). Safety car at end spoiled it. They could have easily managed the last three laps with double waved yellow on the pit straight. It wasn’t in a dangerous place. Having made the decision they did, it was disappointing that they didn’t at least give the VSC a go.
    The marshals were like something out of a Carry On film.

  16. Was going to rate the race a 6, but realizing that the whole top 6 was pretty much stale for the whole race dropped it to a 5. Battles just aren’t the same when they’re for P13.

    1. Battles just aren’t the same when they’re for P13.

      @meander

      Disagree, A good battle is a good battle regardless of what position its over & I thoroughly enjoyed those battles & bits of overtaking just as much as I woudl if they were for the leading places.

      I’d rate the race 7/10, Not great but the bits of great racing that did occur were fantastic!

      1. While I agree with you that the quality of a battle is not related to the position, the significance of the battle for the end result of the race does affect how exciting the race is, and therefore contributes more or less to the rating. For me, that is.

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          12th April 2015, 11:18

          @meander – You’re right. A battle for 13th is not the same as a battle for the lead. It can’t be. That goes for any sport. Having said that, there was some great racing today in the mid-field that was very exciting to watch!

    2. Fun fact – on L9 every driver was driving either right in front or behind his teammate except for the STRs (Even worse, they would had Sainz not spun)

  17. A (not strong) 7 for me. Nico needs to do something very fast or else this season title fighting will be pretty dull. Nice to see Kimi close to Seb. It promises…

  18. 5, strategy fest, not one for the casual fans. My mum won’t like it.

    1. Mr win or lose
      12th April 2015, 11:44

      Strategy can be a good thing. If there is a lot of different strategies it can be really interesting towards the end of the race. Unfortunately, this time strategy was about saving the tyres and trying to undercut other drivers, which wasn’t too great indeed.

  19. Too bad Vettel did not catch Rosberg, I am beginning to think that Rosberg will struggle more this year with the raw speed of Ferrari.

  20. It was pretty much the most average of average races. A few battles, and few strategy calls. Had my vote at either 5 or 6, decided that 6 was worthy for the actually fun battles we had, even if they were for the lowly positions. Oh, and the marshalls. I was originally going to go 5 because of the fact that the tyres were really annoying. If a car ahead can back you into the car behind simply because you’d destroy your tyres if you even tried to attack is incredibly broken. However, part of me thinks that if we had durable tyres, Hamilton would have been gone anyway… It’s a balancing act to get it right.
    It is a shame it ended behind the SC, it looked like the Ferrari’s could have gotten a little interesting (and was hoping so too as I had Raikkonen ahead of Vettel in the predictions). Other than that though, pretty much the result everyone expected.

  21. 4 for the boring processional race with nothing to raise any sense of excitement.

  22. Apparently at the next GP Verstappen his mother is going to be there. His sister also. His mother is going to give her a certain bag she wanted for so long. They made a list of which relatives were at the previous races to see which parent cared the most I think.

    Also some French people keep saying Franz Toast, while it is Franz Tost. The commentators spent a full five minutes talking about that.

    That was how interesting this race was. Mercedes back to Melbourne ways.

    1. The US commentators were stating that Max’s parents had split and his mother wanted him to race under a Belgian flag, while Jos wanted him to remain Dutch.

      1. That American intelligence is correct sir (for a change!)

        His mother is Belgian (a great karter in her day too) while his father Jos is Dutch. Max was born in Belgium and lived there all his life, but his accent is Dutch. He’s a 4x Dutch cadet/junior champion and only a 3x Belgian, so that settles the score I’d say ;)

  23. Put Vettel in the 2nd Merc I say

    1. Put ricciardo in the 2nd merc I say.

      1. Put me on it I say. I’ll fight it out with the manor cars!

        1. @philipgb Giving it your all to unlap yourself to only be 7 laps down? ;)

        2. No, put ME in it I say! I’ll sell it to the highest bidder, retire and watch Indycar championship for the rest of my life.

      2. Put Ericsson’s Sauber in front of him I say.

  24. I gave it a 7.

    Was overall not great but there was some exceptionally good bits of racing at times & some really good overtaking which bumped up the score a bit.

    1. Picking up something Brundle has said a few times this year, I’ve noticed from the OnBoard’s that the cars with the most complex front wings do look to be having a much harder time following cars closely this year compares to 2014.
      However the Mid-field teams with less complex front wings seem able to get much closer to cars ahead & be able to stay much closer which is perhaps why the best bits of racing tend to be between those teams.

      If they want to really improve the racing they need to simplify the front wings & get rid of all these flaps & extra elements.

      1. You’ll get half the people agreeing with you and half bemoaning the cars are now slower than GP2.

        Look at 2009 cars. Very simple front wings and they seemed to have even more trouble following due to the double diffuser turbulence.

        It may not be the front wings complexity, the lead cars are following lead cars, the mid pack following mid pack. So the lead cars are following cars that kick out more turbulent air than the mid pack.

        I can’t help but wonder what impact the exhaust pointing right at the car behind has.

  25. Just about made it through to a 7. Some entertaining midfield battles made it a 6, but I found the whole marshall handling of Verstappen’s car so damn funny, it pushes it up to a 7. It really did make me chuckle!

  26. solid 6. Kudos to the TV feed director. This time they caught good battles in the midfield that made an otherwise boring race still somewhat entertaining.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      12th April 2015, 11:04

      @tmf42 – Good point. With Sutil out of F1 and Lewis now single, we actually get to watch some of the racing! First session this year I have watched live that didn’t feature at least one cut to Carmen Jorda in the garage!

  27. A terrible race. Twice there were pretty good fights. Unfortunately, the only reason to watch the race was the strategy dicisions from Ferrari. Kimi was good, Button was good))) Maldonado was at his best conditions.
    3 points overall thanks to those two fights.

    1. @slava There was more than just 2 fights going on throughout the race.

      There was some fantastic bits of racing throughout a number of different times between the Red Bull’s, STR’s, McLaren’s, Lotus & Saubers.

  28. 6
    Unlike Australia we had battles for position throughout the race (albeit in the midfield).

    I’m glad F1 doesn’t do anything like a “Green-White-Checker” to try and get a green flag finish. The idea of someone other then the dominant car winning a race because the caught a lucky break at the very end doesn’t sit well with me.

  29. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming – the Mercedes parade.

    I found the race pretty processional. No real action within the top 7 drivers, and other than seeing some entertaining battles for the lower reaches of the points and Maldonado’s misadventures, there wasn’t a huge amount of entertainment to be had. A 6.

  30. 4/10. Even though my favourite driver won the race. Rosberg needs to speed up otherwise this whole season will be boring.

  31. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    12th April 2015, 9:03

    6. Was boring between the battle against Mercedes and Ferrari, but behind them were some amazing battles from Ricciardo and Ericsson.

  32. I gave it a generous 7. 6 seemed a bit too low.

    We did see some great battles throughout the field, unfortunately just not at the front. I loved the Ericsson-Ricciardo battles, they were really fair and fun to watch. Also props to Verstappen for doing an excellent job until his engine failed. All in all, the race was better than Australia, worse than Malaysia.

  33. OK, not a lot at the front and shame how it finished but there were good scraps in the pack. 6/10.

  34. Haven`t been this bored watching F1 in years. A strong and well deserved 1.. Looking forward to MotoGP tonight.

    1. I wish I could watch it – I’m (unfortunately) at work…

  35. Things were setting up for an interesting final lap or two, particularly between Kimi and Seb, before the safety car came out and sterilised proceedings. Anti-climactic, and a great shame for Verstappen, who drove a fantastic race.

    1. Kimi had all race to make a move, same as Rosberg and nothing happened. Yes his tires in the last stint were fresher than other stints but still it didn’t look even close to an overtake.

      1. @ivan-vinitskyy True, but his tyres were 4 laps fresher, and he had been closing down a 3.5 (iirc) second deficit over the final stint, and just before the safety car came out he was less than a second behind. Who knows if he could have made a move stick, but he certainly had a chance.

        1. @polo Less than a second? Really? I saw him getting to 1.9sec, not more. Let’s see lap charts once Keith posts them. It could have been just safety car effect.

          1. @ivan-vinitskyy Maybe I was wrong, I don’t know, all I know is that my family (who always like to have their iPads with the live timing on hand) were saying that Kimi was 0.6s behind Vettel as the safety car came out. Maybe Vettel had slowed down to the safety car delta at that point, not sure. As you said, the lap charts will hopefully clear that up.

        2. @polo, Kimi was 1.5 seconds behind Vettel. Not under 1 second

          1. @mjf1fan You’re right, I just read Autosport’s race summary. The timing my family gave me must have been after the cars had closed up under the safety car. Apologies for any confusion I created. Seems like Vettel would have most likely stayed of Kimi anyway then, so the safety car probably didn’t deprive us of too much.

          2. Its okay :)
            Don’t know whether kimi would have passed Vettel, but it would have been very interesting.

    2. Am I alone in thinking F1 should do like BTCC and carry sufficient fuel to add racing laps back on in the event of the Safety Car? It works a treat in BTCC – paying crowd doesn’t get robbed of racing action!

      1. @f1bobby No I think the race distance should be fixed. I’m sick of all this fiddling with the rules and making things overcomplicated just to ‘spice up the show’.

        1. I don’t think that adding racing laps to compensate for laps neutralised under SC is overcomplicated, it’s good for the sport and good for the viewers. In my opinion it’s a positive idea; not a gimmick like double points or whatever. :-)

  36. A 6 for me today, I think I have been over scoring a little bit recently. This race was good, but I felt that we were robbed of a race due to tyre saving again, it is still nice to see the ferrari’s there and it is good fun to see redbull fortunes change. Overall a good race and nice to see Grosjean back in a decent position.

  37. 7/10 for me. There were quite a few battles in the midfield which were nice to watch. Tires have really taken away from racing here I thought. Merc speed was dictated by tires and how long they’ll last and not by speed of car. Rosberg was just silly sitting behind ham 2 sec out because ‘getting closer would have destroyed the tires’. How the hell does he think he’ll win the championship if he isn’t even bothered to attempt an overtake?
    Same 1 sec speed advantage on either tires shows Ferrari does not have the speed needed to beat Mercs and without hot conditions they aren’t better on their tires.

  38. I wonder when all the cries of “Hamilton is only winning because he has the fastest car” will start. I mean, we had it when Schumacher was winning all the time, and we had it when Vettel was winning all the time, so why not have it with Hamilton?

    This race was boring, processional, and completely predictable, save for a few interesting battles further down the field. A poor example of racing by Jenson Button (who many still tout as one of the better drivers) just put the nail in the coffin of this race.

    I love F1, and have done since I was a kid, but this year and last, despite having so much potential, have been neutered by the total dominance of one team, and this is really removing me from it…

    1. Ravenouscartoon
      12th April 2015, 10:30

      I’ll say the same now as I did then. Hamilton is winning because he has the best car, but he still has to beat his teammate, which he is doing comprehensively at the moment

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      12th April 2015, 11:15

      @stigrennfahrer – Hamilton has won races when he wasn’t in the fastest car. He has already proven that. His dominance now is down to the car but he’d still be right up there if the car wasn’t the fastest.

      No driver will ever dominate like Shumi, Hamilton or Vettel without the best car but when you put a top driver against a very good driver (Schumi vs Rubens/Irvine/Massa, Vettel vs Webber, Lewis vs Rosberg/Button), this is what you end up with.

      1. So what about Ricciardo v Vettel

        1. Yeah, maybe Ricciardo can win when Vettel’s car breaks every 3 seconds.

  39. Merc-Merc-Ferrari-Ferrari-Williams-Williams and then the ‘also rans’ with the McLarens struggling at the back. How boring and predictable can it get?

    The Ricciardo – Ericsson duel was the only thing that kep me awake.

  40. I would give it a 6.5, but in the end I voted 7.
    The battle for the top 6 was decided after the first few corners, no battles on track, no difference in the strategies. But the midfield was very lively today. There was a lot of good, clean racing. The Sauber drivers defended well (especially Ericsson), Verstappen mad some bold moves, Ricciardo tried to recover from a bad start, but he made a lot of mistakes, which is unusual. Also, good job by the TV director, usually we don’t see these battles.

  41. Nice battles for positions, it would have been better had there be no engine and gearbox problems. Strategy of ferrari really kept the mercedes on their toes and the tension alive, although dissapointed by williams pace, lotus can give them a challenge if they sort out their driving errors. Good race gave it 8.

  42. I quite enjoyed that, the race had a lot going on and was good to watch. The battle at the front was nice and strategic, the midfield was chaotic and there was a good battle at the back. Ok there wasn’t a “real” race at the front but it was a prime example of just how comfortable Hamilton feels at the moment. He had the measure of Rosberg all race and was even aware enough to try back Rosberg into Vettel. A supreme performance. The major disappointment for me was Williams, they had nothing to answer the Ferrari’s pace, never mind the Mercedes.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      12th April 2015, 11:16

      @geemac Yeah I’d agree with that – surprised so many found it dull. There have been plenty of dull races in the past but this had more than enough to keep it exciting!

      1. @petebaldwin Agreed, I am very surprised by the low ratings. I have no idea what some fans want these days to be honest.

        1. Simon (@weeniebeenie)
          12th April 2015, 12:57

          @geemac racing, perhaps? What was exciting about the ‘battle’ at the front? Strategy in itself will never be interesting, it has to in turn generate good racing.

  43. Gave it a 6. Although if the end wasnt disrupted by SC, I would have voted 7.

    It was a cat and mouse chase between Mercs and Ferrari until they put on Mediums. After that Mercs were uncatchable.
    Good defensive driving from Ericsson and Mega driving from Max Verstappen.

    It was shame that he had to retire on the main straight which brought out safety car and killed the battle between Ferrari team mates for the last spot on the podium.

  44. I prefer 6.5 but I gave it 7. While there is no action in the front, you can feel the battle between Mercedes and Ferrari pit strategies, also how Hamilton beautifully makes 2nd stint works for him and harming his rivals.

    Max Verstappen did an amazing job and STR beating Red Bull again, before his engine blows up which is a shame. On that note, Renault reliability is really bad and maybe we hear something from Christian Horner or Helmut Marko really soon ;)

    Maldonado have great race in first part of the race, doing 2 superb overtaking move before destroyed his own race with 2 silly error. His race ended by Button which he can totally avoid if he not doing that 2 silly things earlier.

    Button as usual providing great spectacle for all races this season so far. How he managed to do great battles with such inferior car is testament on how good his driving skill is. He also make that rare mistake on crashing on Maldonado. Maybe the gods just want to toy with him and Jenson is the closest man available LOL. Alonso doing his usual good start at 1st lap but we sadly don’t see it much on TV. McLaren making another good progress, I hope with the next engine update they can fight for points.

    The only bad thing is for me is safety car at the end that robbed us on potential Kimi and Vettel battle for 3rd, although realistically there not much time left and probably Vettel still have something to keep Kimi outside DRS zone.

  45. 7/10

    It was no thriller, but if you didn’t enjoy this race you are watching the wrong sport.

    We had Lewis managing a four car train for the lead to perfection with the added bonus he continues to get under Nico’s skin. They may not have been banging wheels and locking into corners trying to dive past, but that isn’t always what formula 1 is about. If you didn’t see a tense battle going on, then that’s just because you don’t know the details to look for.

    And we did have some real racing going on down the field. I simply can’t believe Verstappen is 17. The patience he has sizing up a pass and the level headed manner he dealt with the engine failure. I am in awe.

    So a good race. Not a classic, but it’s the staple kind of racing F1 is typically about. If you didn’t enjoy it, you have the wrong sport.

    1. Agreed. I think the Malaysian GP created some unrealistic expectations.
      It’s similar to how the boring Australian GP made Malaysia seem better than it actually was due to the contrast (it was still a very good race, just not worth 10/10 imo). The excitement of Malaysia made this seem like a worse race than it really was. No thriller, but a decent race.

    2. @philipgb “If you didn’t see a tense battle going on, then that’s just because you don’t know the details to look for.”

      Never have truer words been spoken.

    3. The details you looked at were wheels spinning?

  46. ColdFly F1 (@)
    12th April 2015, 10:05

    I gave it an 8.
    A race is more than just the fight for the lead. Beautiful fights and manoeuvres everywhere between 6th and the Manor’s. Wow, what a lovely overtaking by Verstappen on ERI/NAS/PER.

  47. I gave it an 8/10.

    Yes, I sound a bit mad, but there were good battles at the start of the race (including the tip 2 teams of 2012 battling for 14th or something like that), and while it got a tad boring in the middle (even then there were interesting strategy battles) VES’ pass on ERI and the way his car was (mis?)handled by the marshalls near the end of the race were gold (despite the safety car). Also loved Kimi’s radio transmissions – better than VET singing blue flags.

  48. I don’t understand how can majority rate this race on pair with Malaysian race?
    I gave it a generous 4. There was no excitement from third lap onwards. Some battles in midfield but mainly on straights with DRS, except Button Maldonado fight. I mean Ericsson got like 20 minutes of air time.
    Ok you’re Hamilton fans and he was incredible today, but shouldn’t we vote for him in DOTW column instead and rate the race from entertainment or excitement or eventfulness point of view.

    1. @geekracer2000 I’m a Vettel fan. Look at my rating.

      1. @davidnotcoulthard I see but I don’t understand your reasoning. Sorry.
        Well I hope you voted 13,5 on previous race. Then it would make some sense.

        1. @geekracer2000 Well, you can’t accuse me of being a HAM fan….

          Anyway, I don’t think I voted last time out. I think it was either 8 (but close to 9) or 9 (but not a classic) (I seem to always avoid 10 no matter what for some reason). I got so confused between the 2 I just decided to not put a score.

          China was definitely far from a 9, though. Very far.

  49. Awful race, I rated it a one as there is no “0” option. What are those Chinese Marshalls doing? They have no idea what they are doing and if we ever had a big crash at China they would be no good at all- infact I’d even say they are a danger to the sport just being there. They took about 3 laps to start to move Hulkenburg’s car, and he parked right next to them. And Vestappen’s car, it was like Keystone Cops all over again. maybe they should do as Turkey used to do and ship over some proper Marshalls from Europe for the weekend.

    1. The marshals needed to wait for permission from race control to start moving the car. That normally happens when the cars are sufficiently scooped up by the safety. They aren’t to blame for that.

      The farcical 12-point turn to get it off the track is all them though. But I think it is unlikely that even if they’d been significantly quicker that a single lap of DRS-less racing after the safety car would have made much difference. And it certainly shouldn’t have done.

      As for the rest of the race, I really enjoyed it. A tense, tactical race for the first two thirds, the touchpaper being lit on the fight between Lewis and Nico. Plenty of action further down the field, lots of stories being told. It wasn’t an all time classic, but a good solid race, the bread and butter of F1.

  50. 5/10

    You know the sport’s in serious need of soul-searching if we fans are counting overtakes and good drives on one hand at the end to assess whether it was a good race or not.

    1. @sundarf1 F1’s been in “serious need of sould searching” since at least Spain 1981, then!

  51. petebaldwin (@)
    12th April 2015, 11:01

    Surprised of the low ratings as I didn’t think it was too bad. Great racing from Button (although he blew it eventually) and Verstappen. Another great performance from Vettel to make it 3-0 in races, quali and podiums but disappointing to see the advantage Hamilton has over Rosberg as this season will quickly become a one horse race.

    It certainly wasn’t a classic but I didn’t find it dull…

  52. 7/10 not the most exciting of races, but it definitely was interesting from time to time. The Mercedes and Ferrari drivers were on similar strategies, so it was nice to see Ferrari trying to pass Mercedes during the stops. But no driver in the top 6 managed to make the undercut or overcut work, so no position changes in the top six after lap 1 was inevitable. It’s just a shame that the tyres are so delicate, no one at the front even considers passing other cars as a realistic strategy.

    -generic comment about stupid DRS and obviously hideous CGI ads-

    I have to say, Verstappen is really surprising me. It’s the same with Ricciardo last year, he is not afraid to go for a good old-fashioned lunge under braking, and as a result he gets the pass done time after time. I just don’t understand why there aren’t more drivers who just go for it instead of settling for whatever position they’re in, afraid to destroy the tyres. Maybe if the tyres weren’t made from pasta dough it would be a different story.

    Looking at the first and third race of 2015 (the ‘normal’ races), it seems as though Mercedes is significantly ahead of Ferrari, who are significantly ahead of Williams, who are significantly ahead of the midfield teams. As a result, things are pretty much done and dusted once these teams have taken their places. I hope the top teams will become a bit more closely matched as the season goes on, but for now it’s just a matter of keeping our fingers crossed. And hey, there aren’t good races without bad races.

    1. @andae23

      I just don’t understand why there aren’t more drivers who just go for it instead of settling for whatever position they’re in, afraid to destroy the tyres.

      There are actually plenty of drivers who do when the opportunity arises. Rosberg, Perez, Maldonado spring to mind. And many times they make a complete hash of it squaring their tyres or just plain crashing. Even Ricciardo didn’t pull it off as flawlessly today.

      It takes a lot more skill than it looks to do. You could see Verstappen sizing them up before making the lunge. The kid is a predator.

      1. @philipgb Take Rosberg as an example, he says over the radio “Tell Hamilton to speed up, because if I do my normal pace I will destroy my tyres.” Well than why don’t you do your normal pace and just try and pass Hamilton? Not the best of examples, but you see my point. It happens far too often that someone stays behind three seconds and manages the gap until his next pit stop.

    2. I just don’t understand why there aren’t more drivers who just go for it instead of settling for whatever position they’re in, afraid to destroy the tyres.

      Because it’s actually hard to do clean one like that. You need to have confidence is your braking and also by not braking in normal racing line, you are in dirty part of the track which only make it harder. To illustrate how hard it is, just look how Ricciardo failing an attempt and how much he loses out. And notice that Ricciardo does it often last year too.

  53. Jess (@justblowingofsteam)
    12th April 2015, 11:18

    The only reason i gave it a 5 was because of the marshals trying to bump start Verstappen’s Torro Reno at the end.

  54. Gave it a 6. Just plainly a boring race. Some nice racing in the midfield, but not enough to save the rating. Highlight was definitely the daunting task of getting Verstappen’s car out of the track :)

  55. I gave it a 9. It was good racing from a tactical and sporting point of view – a base of 7 the extra two points come from the entertainment down the track, the side of the track and in the conference room.

  56. 6/10 for me. Good battle throughout the lower end of the points scoring positions (RIC and ERI in particular), Verstappen drove very well until his engine gave way and Maldonado provided some entertainment with his pitlane mishap. Unfortunately the battle at the front was slightly anti-climactic after the promise shown by Ferrari in Malaysia.

    I would also like to question why a lot of people think that the races were more entertaining in the 80/90’s? Let’s go back to the 1985 season, 2 cars finished on the lead lap in the opening race, likewise in the race after and the winner of the 3rd race lapped the field. Imagine the outrage if that happened in 2015…

    1. @delevingne I’m gonna make the radical assumption that half the people who bang on about the “good old days” (of whatever era isn’t today) either have memory issues or never actually watched them.

      1. @cairan Exactamundo…

    2. @delevingne
      In 1985 we had 36 drivers & 19 teams, giving us full grids.
      8 drivers & 5 teams won races that year.
      You wouldn’t know who was going to win from one week to the next.
      There was a lot of overtaking, and no DRS or designed to degrade tires to make them easy.
      The relatively simple aero packages meant cars could run on the gearbox of the car in front and use the slipstream effect.
      PR departments hadn’t become a buffer between the team/drivers & the fans so we’d get to hear a far less sanitised version of their opinions.
      No one was trying to charge me to watch F1.
      Most circuits still had most of their original features, even though we’d lost the original Spa, Monza and Ring we still had the dog leg at Monaco, Paul Ricard and plenty of other great circuits – Detroit was the only really bad circuit.
      We may have had a greater field spread and fewer finishers but that was down to the drivers and teams pushing each other, and themselves, far harder than we get these days.

  57. 4/10. Some nice scraps in midfield but I wanted to see some action at the front. Watching the stewards attempt to move Verstappens car into the pit lane was quite comical, but apart for that the race was nothing to smile about.

  58. Hello. I’m a new entry in the blog and this my 1st comment.. nice to met you all!
    I rated 7 overall due big Pastor, always a nice show, no boring at all with him. He’s #1 in my Top & flop ranking ever (even this time not his fault).
    MB: gone to lead normality; Reds: Malaysian race has given us more hope, bot today not so bad, sooner or later we’ll see Wolf really worried, after that Ferraris will have fielded new pu upgrade named evo (barcellona?). Actually, Wolf pretends to be concerned, but it’s for the show.

  59. 4/10… terribly dull race.

  60. 2. Bore-ing. Could barely stay awake. at 3:00 am sleep became more prized (and as an F1 junkie that’s saying something) and I actually turned it off. Max V the only bright spot. Real shame for the racing that Williams are so far off the pace this year. My (vain?) hope is for McLaren to unlock significant performance and soon, or I won’t make it through the season for the first time ever.

  61. I enjoyed watching Max, but this race was too boring. Nothing changed in the top 6 since the 4th turn, and we didn’t see any real battle there, even between teammates.

    I gave it a 4/10 because of some nice moves my Verstappen and Riciardo. Reminded me of Sochi last year…

  62. It’s beginning to feel a little like the early 2000’s for the first time in a very long while.

  63. Am I the only one that thinks it was crazy the VSC wasn’t deployed at the end?! Isn’t an incident like that the whole purpose of developing it? My memory could be failing me, but it hasn’t been used in a race yet, has it?

    1. Yeah, seemed like the ideal time to trial it.

  64. can we have a “rate the post race press conference” please? that was tv gold!

  65. 7. Mostly thanks to the Mclarens and Max. Oh, and Ric not being able to overtake a Sauber driven by Ericsson.

    Rosbergs whinging made my day. Learn to race, or get another job.

    1. While I’m an LH supporter, I used to have a lot of respect for Rosberg. But that’s fast evaporating this year, what with the ‘journalist’ prank and now the whingeing that Lewis wasn’t running his race for him. It’s all starting to look increasingly childish, even for F1.

      1. Schooled on the race track, schooled in the press conference. :P

  66. I gave it a 7 (might be a 6). Nothing much different from Malaysia, but, i think this week was more eventful. There were some great battles between Red Bull, Sauber, Toro Rosso and Lotus. Even McLarens are seen more than Mercs, Ferraris or Williams’. Different from Malaysia, there were also some striking radio conversations like Raikkonen’s about McLarens (that i think not good of him), Mercedes and their drivers, and Lotus’ “Is the car OK” to Maldonado. By the way, there were some drivers who drove an epic race. Hamilton, Verstappen, both Manors. They were almost faultless and fun to watch.

    All in all, this one is a sample of recent years’ average i think.

  67. How 25% of people rated this borefest a 7 is beyond me…

  68. A classic Formula 1 race at the front.

    Brilliant fighting going on down the pack.

    Maldonado and the Chinese marshals providing the laughs.

    A shame they did not pull in Verstappen’s car in with the efficiency of the Monacan marshals, to provide us with some last lap excitement.

    Overall, a 9. I guess I am an F1 fanatic, and enjoy the sport, unlike most of the the people commenting here.

    1. i agreed it was a great race for me to. There is more to a race then just the battle at the front. Buttom, Maldonado and Verstappen made it a great race for me. Waiting to see if Ferrari could do some thing on the medium tires and seeing how Merc respond made it a great race. i gave it a 8

  69. Gave a 5. Nothing much to talk about other than the fact that something is seriously wrong with F1 when a racer behind asks the other guy to go faster because by getting close to the car ahead he would destroy the tires !!!!!

    So where exactly is the racing we are talking about ????

  70. An absolute bore of a race. I rated it a 6 due to some quality being injected into it courtesy of some very good driving by Max Verstappen (whose overtaking sort of reminded me of Kamui) and Jenson button and Maldonado (which was unfortunate to end that way although it was not his fault for once). Otherwise nothing really happened. Vettel got close maybe once due to the undercut and when the closest a driver gets to stealing a better podium position is 1.7 seconds, I classify it as boring!. The Marshals trying to maneuver that car at the end providing the only other entertainment in the race.

  71. Worst race of the year. All i remember seeing from the race is advertising Wichai from Vettel helmet, Kaspersky to protect from chinese virus, Allianz in boxes area, Rolex all time somebody enters and exist pit area, Fly emirates walls, … All i saw advertising and more advertising, camera angles to focus only in cars advertisings … Horrible, when u cannot focus in anything more than just advertising. I know they only show advertising and cars getting near the advertising walls, but that was 2 much today. Boring race to the max.

  72. Not the worst F1 race ever. A few good overtakes from further down the grid but wish the two red stallions could have closed the gap on the silver arrows but another dominant race from Hamilton no doubts he had some left in the bag. What Nico was moaning about I am unsure 2.5sec back and hes saying Hamilton is holding him up, how about instead of moaning to the team just put your foot down and pass him. Unhappy to see Button get points on his license hes such a good driver with few ever mistakes, that kinda stamping down from race officials will just lead to nobody going for risky overtakes. Yet another shocking performance from the Chinese marshals, I thought the whole point of the safety car was so marshals could enter the track etc but they took there time even getting to that Toro Rosso aside from their child like attempt to remove the car. Overall 6/10 I’d say.

  73. Solid 7. Good race, not amazing, not bad.
    Hamilton brilliant.

  74. I’ll give this one 7 out of 10. Compared to Malaysia this race was a little disappointment, even though there were some great battles in the middle of the pack. But just seeing fights in the middle of the pack doesn’t satisfy me, I want to see tough battles in the top as well. And sure, Mercedes beat Ferrari, but I don’t think it’s going to be too easy to win races consecutively. Besides, Ferrari is supposed to have an updated engine coming for Spanish GP in May, and that gives me hope of seeing tough battles from top positions in the near future. This season is far from over.

  75. I’m watching the race again. Good race. Don’t know why some many complaints. It’s a trend, i think.

  76. Boring at the front but some of the midfield battles kept me entertained. Verstappen was particularly interesting to watch as he made his way through the field.

  77. A generous 6 from me….mainly because of the battles going on nearer the back….Rosberg is doing himself no favours with his constant complaining…and right at the end…..they should have brought the cars to a halt with 2 to go, and then a last gasp run to the finish….and how long does it take Marshalls to get a car through the pit wall???

  78. If you focused on the front of the grid, the race was a bit drab; however, there was some properly contested battles for places like tenth through thirteenth and the racing was tremendously close. Also, I found the opening laps really entertaining and hearing the crowd during the Verstappen escapade made me laugh. 7 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  79. For the first time ever, I fell asleep (briefly) in the middle of a Formula 1 race. I’ve got used to watching races where the first two positions don’t change hands, but there was no excitement in the whole top six for most of this race. I suppose some people like tactical battles, drivers trading tenths here and there and trying to gain an advantage in the pits, but I prefer on-track overtaking myself. I know there were some decent battles in this race, but they were all for the positions that don’t really matter. 4/10.

  80. 8. The end was funny but it’s a shame that we didn’t get to see the sc come in. Lots of good overtakes made up for it though. Hopefully we get more good races this year, it’s been a good start to the season so far.

  81. Trenthamfolk (@)
    12th April 2015, 20:04

    I really enjoyed the race… the Ferrari’s kept the Merc’s honest, good battles down the line… Maldonado crashed again – although the stewards blamed Button – He’s never far from trouble and true to form. Shame about the reliability on the Renault power unit, loved all the ducking and diving, giggling at the baby-strops from the fizzy-pop boys and laughing out loud at Rosberg being a big baby in the press conference! I ask you, what is there not to love here??? This is F1 and it’s as mind-bendingly amazing and ridiculous as ever… gotta learn to love people.

  82. There was definitely some good action.. but the ending was unfortunate. 6/10 at best..

    However, had the Renault exploded sooner we could have been in for a brilliant finish with the front runners stacked up behind the safety car on used prime tyres and a sprint to the end …So I blame the Renault being just a bit too reliable for the bland finish. ;)

  83. 5/10 No battle at all in the first 7 cars.
    Godfather Bernie & Cia. GO HOME!

  84. I had the misfortune to sit through the entire first round of the Indycar championship the other week.

    If you thought F1 was boring this weekend, you don’t know what boring is.

  85. That was one boring race, i get myself sleeping between laps 40 and 50…

  86. Our only hope was Kimi having to recover during the race, but he owned the Williams at turn 1… when teammates are running one in front of the other it’s great because it means intra-team competitiveness but it also means car performance are too far apart, and with the faster driver ahead and team orders ready to be used we don’t even get to see those battles. Verstappen was entertaining but lucky that the other drivers though better and were less impulsive, Maldonado provided most of the drama… 5/10

  87. Can’t decide 5 or 6. Congratulations to the Ferrari powerplant,
    it makes all Ferrari users look good. Can’t wait for Manor to get their new car! Are the Renault engines really bad or is it the way they are packaged and used…?

  88. Watched this race after watching the WEC from Silverstone – definitely did that in the wrong order….

  89. 3.

    Very disappointing.

    This could well be the last season’s subscription to Sky F1, too. Boring races, very average coverage. I’ll spend the money I’ll save on beige underpants.

    Bahrain was awesome last year so I’m hoping for something more fun there!

    Get those fingers crossed!

  90. 5 from me. I’m glad Hamilton won, but no battles from him down to Grosjean. I don’t really count Vettel closing up on Rosberg slightly as ‘exciting’. I don’t think he ever got within DRS range of him. Verstappen was the main reason why I rated it this highly. I thought Ericsson also drove very fairly and provided some good racing.

    I hope this season doesn’t turn into another 2013 but with Mercedes. Hopefully Ferrari can mount a challenge next week. Bahrain usually provides a good race, so fingers crossed.

    1. If, half-way through this season, we’ve had five different race winners from three different teams and Mercedes is less than 70 points ahead of the second best team, I’ll be ecstatic. And that will be a 2013 season.

      1. Yeah, 2013 only really started to suck when Red Bull and Mercedes got their way, and new, more dureable tyres were introduced. That was pretty much the end of the championship.

        1. @nase The yres weren’t entirely new though.

          And what about non-RBR and non-Brackley cars having their tyres burst? I doubt the tyre change was purely a case of “Red Bull and Mercedes got their way”.

  91. I rate this race a 6. It wasn’t too exciting.

  92. having read through all the comments i must say that i agree with a 5 being the best i could rate it. yes, some action there with the mid field and the backmarkers but it was simply a mercfest when distilled. rosberg is a beaten man and he showed that pre race as well. i simply cannot get excited watching a procession where the top six remain in line for almost the entire race!

    i just wish that the renault was on a par with the mercs and ferrari then we would see some real action. just watching ricciardo struggle with the car was painful. having to take a low dragforce rear wing to get some straight line speed ruined his passing under brakes that were also decidedly dodgy. under normal circumstances ricciardo doesn’t make those mistakes. verstappen was great and possibly his drive was the highlight of the entire race!

  93. I gave it 10/10. I approve of the cars coming in two by two.

  94. Not a thriller. Pretty average, somewhat reminiscent of 2009, where the first two laps were often packed with action, but as soon as the correct tyre temperatures kicked in, everything turned into a procession.
    What I don’t get is why they introduced the VSC when they obviously don’t want to use it. First the Ericsson incident in Sepang, now Verstappen’s stranded car next to the pit wall. It’s not like the track was littered with debris, or a driver needed medical assistance. I also didn’t see any torrential rain or madmen running on the track or anything of the like. So why did they have to deploy the Safety Car? It just doesn’t make sense.

    Anyway, that Safety Car had no impact on my perception of the race, which was a flat 5 for me.

  95. Michael Brown
    13th April 2015, 1:05

    Ugh. Why did I get up to watch this? WEC on the other hand…

  96. What an anticlimax.
    Not even Verstapan can raise my 1 to an 8 as some have said before me. I Prerecorded it, skipped quit a bit and was thanking God that the whole thing was over.
    Highlight must go to the track marshals for their failure to push a car into pitlane.
    I Think they need a rule to add and extra lap if it appears that the race will end behind the safety car.

  97. Just not a very good race except for some in the middle of the pack which we did not get to see often enough. I believe this 4 rating is the lowest I have ever given any F1 race since I tend to enjoy all F1 races just some more than others. Hoping for better next race, Thanks Norris

  98. I thought it was an awesome race from start to finish.
    Great racing throughout the field and bloody comedic at the end too.
    Rosberg should’ve attacked Hamilton when he was slowing though.

    1. Awesome race? Are we talking about the same race?

      1. Of course, it is entirely impossible that a person who is not yourself, with parameters of interest that are not yours, enjoyed something differently than you did. And the polite thing to do is to question the author of the differing opinion instead of discussing the differences between your opinion and his.

        1. While it is true that you raise a valid point about politeness, I entirely understand @yoshif8tures ‘s surprise. Perceiving and rating a race may be subjective, but in this case, not rating the race as “awesome” is bordering the objective …

          Does the wording make any sense? My brain is still thawing, and I can’t English yet. :o)

  99. 4/10 for race is all I have to say. As for those who have watched the race you knew what happened.
    Kimi ranting about the guys in front to get out of his way and Nico’s rant on Lewis was more prominent than the entire race. After the top four locked in their positions the gaps opened and closed but nothing close to any overtaking chances. Some overtaking moves from midfield and back markers were ok.

    Now for Bahrain, let’s see how thrilling it can be, better than 2014? Could be worse or better, hanging in here with some optimism.

  100. I voted a 7 out of 10. In all, there was plenty going on between drivers for most of the race (albeit in the midfield), plus, Verstappen nearly had me jumping out of my seat twice.

    It’s a shame the front positions were as locked as they were, but ultimately the strategy part of Vettel sticking close to Rosberg in the beginning was interesting, even if nothing came of it.

    To be honest, watching NASCAR lately has made me wonder about whether or not F1 should add a rule that allows the race director to extend the race by one lap if there’s a safety car on the final lap. Safety Car finishes don’t happen often, but are anti-climactic enough to kill a buzz.

    1. @npf1
      With all due respect (did ever come anything good after that?), it’s rules like these that make me cringe when I so much as think about NASCAR.
      In my opinion, there should be no tampering with the race length. The driver who leads after the number of laps that was fixed at the start should be the race winner. Safety Cars are an artificial element that should only come into play to protect the drivers and track personnel from a dangerous situation. I think of it as a relic of the past in that it annihilates any gaps that may have existed before its deployment and thus may punish a driver who invested the limited resources of his car (i.e. fuel and tyre life, tyre strategy has also to be taken into account) into building a gap.
      Furthermore, extending a race for a lap would lead to compatibility problems with the fuel restriction. It is said that tha cars only use roughly 50% of the fuel per lap when following the Safety Car, but this depends quite heavily on the circuit and on the engine used. Worst case scenario: Some cars would have to limp around the circuit during that additional lap to reach the flag, destroying their respective races.

      I totally agree with you on that a Safety Car finish is the least exciting way to end a race, but I think it’s a minor inconvenience that could be reduced further by deploying the Safety Car only when absolutely necessary.

  101. 5 for the number of laps I’ve watched before falling asleep.

  102. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
    13th April 2015, 9:16

    I really enjoyed it at the time, though in retrospect not much happened. I was holding out hope for Ferrari finding some pace on the primes, but it never happened. Away from the front there was some great racing, particularly from Verstappen and the epic Button vs. Maldonado fight – superb! I gave it a 7.

  103. There is something definitely wrong with Formula 1 if the comments here are to be believed. Personally, I didn’t even bother to watch the race – I stayed asleep and I think that was a better use of the time.
    Sad to see Grand Prix racing so lack-lustre and uninspiring.

  104. I voted a 6. It wasn’t the worst race but I was expecting more of a challenge at the font to rate it higher. Having said this some of the fighting in the midfield was very good.

    I am a Lewis fan but I would like to see Rosberg challenge him a bit more this season, so far Nico’s gone down with a whimper (and a moan).

    After China I expect Nico to come out fighting and I am willing to bet there will be more “selfish” antics from both drivers.

  105. 5 obviously.

    Anyone giving this an 8 needs to get out more

  106. PVR it here in Canada, watched it in 41 minutes and turned it off when the safety car was announced. Wow have my viewing habits change since starting with this sport in the early 90’s.

  107. Maldonado made the race enjoyable.

  108. Very boring procession after lap 1. In fact at the end of lap one positions 1-8 was the same positions at the chequered flag if I remember correctly. So they could have saved us a lot of time by making the race only one lap and had pretty much the same results as a full race. Even the “undercut” which I find awful, but the commentators seem to find magical failed to make a difference today.

  109. I thought it was a decent race and rated it 6.5 to 7 (rounded up to 7 in the voting).

    With the leaders being relatively close, up until the last round of pit stops I thought Vettel might be able to make his tyres work longer and seriously challenge the Mercedes but it wasn’t to be.

    In the end it turned out that Hamilton was just controlling the race all along and had the pace in hand if he needed it.

    There was action further down the field with Verstappen pulling off some good overtaking moves and an entertaining battle between Button and Maldonado late on.

    I didn’t understand Rosberg’s rant after the race, if he thought Hamilton was holding him up during the second stint he should have closed up and put pressure on Hamilton if Vettel was doing that to him.

    I only saw the BBC highlights show and I only use the on screen graphics not a timing app, but it seemed for most of the first stint the Hamilton Rosberg gap was consistently just over a second, just outside of DRS range, and in the second stint the gap was consistently 2+ seconds.

    Also as Coulthard pointed out in commentary when the team told Hamilton to increase his pace he did just that to the lap time requested. After the last race where tyre management was the main factor in Ferrari beating Mercedes, Hamilton was just looking after his tyres as much as possible, as should have done.

    Some have suggested that it is an indication that Rosberg is losing the psychological battle at Mercedes, but initially I wondered if Rosberg did it to purposely create tension in the team and upset Hamilton, as judging from last year that might be his best bet to beat Hamilton.

  110. who rated it 10?

Comments are closed.