Rate the race: 2016 Chinese Grand Prix

2016 Chinese Grand Prix

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

Since 2008, F1 Fanatic has held polls on every F1 race to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. 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 2016 Chinese Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (3%)
  • 9 (23%)
  • 8 (43%)
  • 7 (22%)
  • 6 (6%)
  • 5 (1%)
  • 4 (0%)
  • 3 (0%)
  • 2 (0%)
  • 1 (0%)

Total Voters: 694

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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

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200 comments on “Rate the race: 2016 Chinese Grand Prix”

  1. Raciest race I’ve seen in a good while. A 9 from me – would have been 10 except for the usual processional ending.

    1. Couldn’t agree more. I also docked a point because of the absolute absence of action at the front, but the rest of the field was really, really entertaining. Shows that F1 cars and engines are not broken, what’s broken is the people in charge.

      3 good races in a row (though all with the same winner), this is the F1 I love.

    2. Exactly, 9 from me as well. Great race but the #1 spot is secure with Merc. They just can’t catch them.

    3. Good race. Na 8 for me, too bad Nico was on a race of his own because his main competitors “took themselves” out of contention…

    4. It looks like not many people have realized that Sainz took Bottas in the last lap. Unfortunately they didn’t show that on TV, but I was quite interested in that final battle. Maybe not the most exciting battle ever, but not a totally processional ending either.

  2. Another good race for 2016. 8/10. Battle for the lead was the only thing I missed.

    1. I gave it an 8 as well. For the exact same reason. If we had a battle for the lead, this would have been a 9 in my books

    2. An 8 from me as well.
      If Kvyat had not been so aggressive at the start (you do not win a race by winning the first corner…) I am certain we would have seen Kimi but also Vettel challenge Rosberg for the win. Challenge for win would make this race a 9 or 10/10. Now w SC that neutralized all, favored some drivers that screwed up their quali etc, then this became a 7-8/10 max race.

    3. I agree. It could have been a more exciting on the front if vettel hadn’t taken out kimi and ricciardo’s tire didn’t blow. In the midfield there were some good racing and it was not all meaningless drs passes but some real passes as well.

  3. 9. Would have been a 10 if the fight for first actually materialised/if Verstappen had overtaken Hamilton at the end. Great spectacle, constant racing.

    1. 9 for the same reasons.

  4. ColdFly F1 (@)
    17th April 2016, 8:46

    8/10 – truely enjoyed it.
    Just did not like the SC, and mess afterwards. It wasn’t real overtaking IMO.
    Well done to (ROS) RIC will be my DOTW , VET good come back, VES 8th after being stacked in 1st pit stop

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      17th April 2016, 8:50

      VET gets bonus points for his attack on KVY (in the winners room) ;-)

      1. It was more for show I thought and a little lacking in conviction. Back in the day there would have been fisticuffs; now not even a raised voice, just a schoolmarm-ish complaint.

        1. @mortyvicar I just don’t understand people who want drivers to brawl with each other. Go watch WWE. F1 isn’t a place where Alonso should be left hooking Hamilton or Vettel uppercutting Grosjean and so on. Brawling and fighting in public over a first corner move is pure stupidity.

        2. There wasnt supposed to be any raised voice or a fight. Vettel is not the kinda guy and they handled it well with a talk. Media just made it up as heated argument and crap

    2. Verstappen back to his best. Again beat his teammate, altough having much more bad luck with the start and the accident with Vettel and Kimi. After the redflag, got hold up during the pitstop….but AGAIN….his racecraft is unbelievable. Overtake after overtake…..took him to 8th place……and with 1 extra lap, he would have passed Hamilton aswell.

      Kudo’s for Verstappen

      8,5 for the race

  5. Vettel – DOTD

    1. I wouldn’t give DOTD for the driver who crashes into his team mate…

      1. Guess we weren’t watching the same race.

      2. I wouldn’t crash into my team mate if the other car tried not to squeeze through.

        1. Don’t worry – @huhhii can’t grasp reality

          1. And the reality is Vettel crashed into his team mate. He wasn’t “forced” to but reacted that way and what it hurts. Had he kept going (without turning into his left) or reduced his speed the impact probably wouldn’t had happened. Racers often prefer (in an irrational manner) to keep going and crash than to reduce speed and let someone pass, as painful that is that was an option Vettel chose not to use. Kvyat did not wrong and just used an open piece of track right in front of him.
            I think Vettel will now think twice before he tries to have a go live on someone he probably thought was the weakest link. Kvyat showed Vettel what he is made of twice on the same day. In and Off track.

      3. ColdFly F1 (@)
        17th April 2016, 8:53

        being sandwiched – what would you do? brake

        1. FYI Kimi loss traction AND locked up – which is why the door was open to begin with. Kvyat was too aggressive on the inside and SV had nowhere to go. The lack of penalties says as much.

          1. kvyat was the right amount of aggressive, excellent work by him. You can’t expect him to hang back and wait for vettel, while there is an open lane in front of him. Every single racer would go in there. Vettel was just a bit unlucky with the sandwich, but that is racing.

          2. @johanness There’s enough space there for 3 cars to go side-by-side. Kvyat did nothing wrong. Vettel also lost the traction hence colliding with Kimi. Racing incident, but I still put the blame on Vettel for being overly aggressive while being sandwiched.

          3. He still had the best recovery drive regardless – thus DOTD

          4. Johannes SAYS, (FYI Kimi loss traction AND locked up)
            exactly, but he also lost control, causing him to turn inwards giving Vet no room,
            nothing to do with Kvyat at all.
            Vettel needs to watch it over and over again to see his call on Kvyat is wrong.

        2. Vettels options were hit the car on the left or right or be hit from behind, next time I think he won’t choose his team mate.

    2. Cant give him Driver of the day/Weekend. He made so many errors(as he has all year to be honest). Also forgetting his incident with his team mate he also hit a Williams.

      I think in 3 races he has had to apologise to the team more times that Alonso did in his whole Ferrari career.

  6. Part of me wants Rosberg to win the title this year. You can’t win that many races and not be World Champion (only Moss can do that!).

    1. It would be good for F1 and possibly even Hamilton if Rosberg is this year’s WDC.

      1. Of course fans don’t like consecutive title wins especially if they come after a very dominant performance. But can you explain how “it would be good for.. Hamilton if Rosberg is this year’s WDC”? I thought such pleasure alone would be Rosberg’s and of course the Mercedes team since it is one of the drivers who won.

        1. Good in a sense, it would be a teaching and growing moment for Lewis, enabling him to be better in the future.

          1. Jureo (enabling him to be better in the future,)

            you must have been messing with Lewis head to come up with that remark,

            3 races gone, 18 to go, Lewis has had bad luck so far, its nothing to do with his attitude,
            in fact i think we are heading for a thriller, Lewis has now 5 other cars he has to watch out for, and at the sametime gather more points to catch Nico.

          2. Incredible!

            If you can explain Jureo how having a remarkable run of luck in a series of races and not ever beating your team mate in a single race through superior race craft or an on track battle over a period of years but somehow lucking into a championship regardless, would be ‘good’ for either NR, F1 in general or LH, I really want to hear it?

            No one on earth can point to a single ‘lucky’ event in any of LH championships, even 2007 was lost by Massa moving over and a series of ridiculous team decisions that continued (or carried on – they have done such since the 1980’s) until 2012. His wins are either through talent or work. Generally he has a form of anti luck – Spa 2008 or any time he gets near Massa or a Rookie.

            Yet somehow NR continually gets lucked into race wins (2013 Silverstone and perhaps the most unbelievable – Monaco 2014/15 for example) and then two or three in a row this year and it would benefit everyone if he gets a championship, particularly LH?

            I know you do not care for the chap but even SV would be cheesed off watching this kind of luck!

            And it would do no one, particularly F1 any good because stretching believe generally never does.

            Just ask Nicky Hayden..

          3. LH won 2008 champioship with a lot of luck factors envolved.

          4. Michael Brown (@)
            17th April 2016, 19:48

            Meaning that it would be motivating for Hamilton.

        2. Simple: Lewis is on the record as lamenting the lack of sufficient competition in the series. He wants to be challenged. Currently the only real challenge has been from his team-mate, and so far Lewis has had the measure of Nico. If Nico can elevate himself to the level of true equal by beating Lewis this season then it will serve to force Lewis to up his game again and keep him sharper. F1 and the fans win too if we believe Nico has a realistic chance of winning the WDC. Back-to-back-to-back championships are all well and good but they do tend to kill excitement.

    2. I think Rosberg’s father showed how to get a WDC crown with the absolute minimum of wins. ;o)

  7. Another good race. And altough he was brilliant, another race where Rosberg is lucky.
    8, great battles, but as Hamilton predicted, it was easy for Rosberg.

    1. Yup, but lucky for HAM too – there was a SC period!

    2. I do not see where Rosberg was lucky in this race?
      – He posted fastest lap in qualifying, so he starts from pole.
      – He made a fair start, only battling with a couple at the very front.
      – He succeeded in overtaking the race lead shortly after.
      – He drove consistently well and controlled the race.
      – He made his lead sufficient to make a pitstop that kept him in the lead.
      – He cleverly nurtured his tires so he could go the race distance with one less stop.
      Where is the luck?

      1. Well, there’s Lewis’ engine problems in qualifying and a loose Kimi turning into Sebastian in turn one for starters.

  8. Great action but I can’t get to grips with China. No fight for 1st and then everyone trips on each other, leaving an anti-climatic feeling.

    1. I somewhat agree with that @pearlaceous, in that it was soon clear Rosberg would have uncontested win, and the last 10-15 laps I felt attention waning even though there was still quite a bit of action going on. Perhaps FOM broadcasting, not sure. I gave this race a 7/10, rounding down rather than up to 8/10.

      1. Meh, autocorrect; @peartree

      2. petebaldwin (@)
        18th April 2016, 10:59

        @bosyber – To be fair, it was clear Rosberg would have an uncontested win when it was announced Hamilton was going to change his gearbox.

        I’m not too bothered about the battle for “Class 1” at the moment though between the engine suppliers, I’m much more enjoying the racing teams in the “Customer Class” battling behind. Infinitely more exciting.

        1. Definitely true @petebaldwin, it has often been that way in F1 that the fight in the midfield is what is the entertaining bit; as long as FOM also allow us to see that, it is pretty exciting to have such a competitive field fighting for 4th to 14th.

  9. If you just completely ignore the existence of Nico Rosberg, it was an absolutely phenomenal race.

    Even with Rosberg dominating, it was still one of the best races I’ve ever seen without any real fight for the win.

  10. I am fed up of the German anthem but a decent race, 8/10. Even without a race for the lead lots of racing going on throughout the field between lots of teams.

    And the bickering before the podium was entertaining.

    1. Vettel mentioning it to Kvyat in the beginning was welcome but his tone definitely felt like he was talking down on the guy meanwhile Kvyat was being polite by smiling and all that. Then again Seb goes back to the same topic on the podium. That wasn’t nice of him.

      1. +1. Maybe the stewards should have a go here?!? I mean, come on, he can’t bash some other driver like that for trying to pass them (RAI + VET) and since he left so much room there.

      2. I think Vettel was tense because star driver or not, he’s probably going to be given a talking to for hitting his own team mate and defensively already trying to focus as much blame as he can on Kvyat.

        Watching the move though Kvyat made it into the gap and got his nose ahead, it was then down the Vettel to find space and he didn’t need to take as much avoiding action as he actually did.

        1. Vettel was right though, Kvyat went in with a whatever happens , happens, attitude.
          Kvyatt knew before hand that it was going to end up on a crash , the question was whether he , or Vettel would come of the worse for it.
          When you have a driver willing to take those chances then I don’t think he should be abdicated of responsibility.

          1. petebaldwin (@)
            18th April 2016, 11:00

            Vettel would have done exactly the same in his first few years on F1 racing….

        2. Hit the nail on the head there. Vettel was making a bigger issue out of it than he would otherwise because he went all defensive since he felt bad about hitting his teamate and because he expected a talk down from the team about it.

      3. he was much less harsh at the podium and was answering the question. Kvyat was smiling but not because he of politeness…

      4. Polite? He was trying laugh it off like you’d expect an adolescent to do when criticized. With Sainz, Verstappen and Ricciardo all continuing to impress, Kvyat is rightfully feeling the pressure on his shoulders build.

        1. Laughing it off was the best he could do, Vettel was so wrong with his accusations.

          If it would have been Verstappen the whole world would be yelling ‘immature’ again, but luckily it was a 4 times world champion. Emotions are part of the game no matter which age, Vettel prooved that once again!

  11. Worth an 8. Absolute dominant performance from Rosberg and Kudos to Kvyat for a nice podium!

  12. A good race, 8-8.5 probably. The safety car spiced it up a little bit. I wonder what was the cause of Ricciardo’s blowout. Hats off to Lewis despite his damage. As for the damage at the start, Vettel is still upset surely with Kyvat, which is shown in the post race, and made me laugh. However, I don’t think Kyvat was in fault. A couple of things to note as Martin Brundle said:
    -That W07 is sensitive whenever it is behind another car, though this is debatable because Lewis in Bahrain and today had damage. But, I am sure that the car is sensitive while it is in traffic.
    -Mercedes still have not sorted out the start issues. However, Lewis did have a decent start today and gained positions while Nico nearly lost to the Ferraris.
    – It looks like as if F1 is becoming a “clean air objective”. Look at it, it seems like as if the objective is to avoid traffic now as following cars simply just destroys your tyres.

    In conclusion, to beat those W07’s, teams have to either beat them at the start, ruin their strategies and force them to follow you. Pacewise, Mercedes is still far away if left in clean air. Nico surely had a lot in hand today.

    1. This. Mercedes is very vulnerable whenever following another car. Both Riciardo and Raikonen easily passed Lewis and Massa, while Lewis was unable to get past at all.

      It is really good for the show, coupled with poor starts.. But it does show how optimized for downforce that chassis is. Nico in clean air was having a time of his life.

      1. Primary reason Ricciardo and Raikonnen sailed by Massa was they were on much fresher Soft tyres. In addition Hamiltons car had floor damage, still on used mediums the W07 struggled, you could clearly see that Hamilton did not have the traction to close and pass Massa.

        1. Yeah not totally buying that. I think the Merc’s have trouble following each other because they are so identical in performance as well as how they are driven by both LH and NR. I’m not convinced they are more bothered in someone else’s wake than other cars on the grid are. Or put another way, if the Mercedes are the most efficient and therefore the most bothered in dirty air, that sure doesn’t stop them from dominating. It is only when they are behind each other that the one behind is now in a car functioning less well and would need newer or different tires to make gains on the one in front.

          LH has blown a few starts and NR was on harder tires than his cohorts around him in China, so their start woes to me are not a concern and will get sorted out relatively easily if they haven’t been already, masked by NR’s start on softs to the others’ super softs this weekend.

          Otherwise @ju88sy summed it well.

  13. Vettel really overflogging the issue. Dude, it’s ok. Such happens. No need going on the looooong yarn again on the podium. That wasn’t necessary. I particularly don’t like the way he talked to Danni Kyat in the waiting room.

    1. He’s upset because he an Kimi touched. Understandable.

  14. 6/10. Rosberg got another lucky win.

    1. easy and lucky are not the same.

      1. There is no skill in most of Rosberg’s victories. It’s mostly luck and a bit of coasting. Anyone can do that.

        1. unfortunately that has been the case for many victories the last couple of years. It’s won in the first corner. After that it’s autopilot.

        2. Michael Brown (@)
          17th April 2016, 19:51

          I could say that for most Mercedes wins these days. They’re so far ahead the only competition is their own other car.

    2. And Vettel was a little rude to Kvyat in the podium room. Don’t know why Vettel is moaning so much, racing incident 100%

      1. VET might change his mind after watching a replay (or not) – I think he might have felt a bit honour bound to mention it to KYV’s face because he’d broadcast it on radio.

    3. Cant understand why that makes it a 6. There were so many great battles behind him

      1. Trenthamfolk (@)
        17th April 2016, 9:11

        everyone’s entitled to their opinion…

        1. I know I know. I just think it’s a bit harsh considering the racing we had

        2. ColdFly F1 (@)
          17th April 2016, 9:48

          correct @trenthamfolk “everyone’s entitled to their opinion”, and I agree with @smartez‘s opinion (Cant understand why that makes it a 6). Especially since @ultimateuzair‘s only reasoning is the ‘lucky win’.
          My 2nd opinion is that Rate the Race is much more than if yes/no winner was lucky!

    4. I wouldn’t call it a lucky win at all. He did a great job in qualifying – first getting through on the softs then a great lap to nail pole. His softs meant he fell behind Ricciardo at the start, but he looked like getting past already even before Ricciardo had the puncture.

      Sure, had Vettel not hit Kimi the Ferrari would have been right on his back and we could have been in for a race for the win too. But Rosberg really did everything right this weekend.

      A 7/10 for me.

      1. There was nobody to challenge Rosberg in qualifying. It was inevitable that a Mercedes would get pole but Hamilton’s car failed, so Rosberg took it.

        1. After their first runs it didn’t look like Rosberg was really on top. Both Ferrari drivers clearly messed up their laps and would have been closer, maybe ahead, especially if Rosberg had had a small mistake in his lap. But instead his lap was very good and he got that pole @ulitimateuzair.

          It might seem “easy” to you, but we have seen enough times how a driver in that position can still mess up his own lap.

      2. @bascb @ultimateuzair Not sure where else to ask this question so I’ll throw it out here:

        I’m curious, has anyone else noticed that Kimi ALWAYS re-enters the track in a dangerous way when he goes off track? He almost killed Chilton with the crash he caused by doing that back at Silverstone a few years ago. I’ve seen him do it a couple of other times since and again today, he came plowing right back in and nearly “T-Boned” Nasr, who then had no choice but to pull inside and hit Hamilton.

        I thought there was a specific rule about re-entering the track in a safe manner when you go off, but Kimi seems to be immune to that rule because nobody ever even mentions it and in my view he is particularly bad about this.

        Am I wrong?

        1. Michael Brown (@)
          17th April 2016, 19:56

          You’re not wrong. In Silverstone, there was a way for Raikkonen to rejoin the track safely, and if he did the track walk, he would have known about it. Then the stewards excused such a dangerous move because apparently anyone would have done it.

          The stewards took that stance when Alonso passed a car off the track in Abu Dhabi 2013. They said that since he had such a speed advantage, he would have gotten past regardless.

        2. I don’t think you are wrong for mentioning it @daved, had Kimi behaved more like Hamilton did in AUS, he might not have lost his front wing, and the race would have gone more regularly for a lot of drivers behind. Both Vettel and Kimi had some blame in how it played out.

  15. An 8 for me, awesome race, even with Rosberg having nearly 40secs at the finish. DOTW is probably between Kimi and the two Dans. Hamilton really struggled to get past Massa while the others made it look straightforward, thing the Merc’s one of the worst cars to be in in dirty air.

  16. A good one, 8/10. Rosberg might have dominated but the rest made the race out of it. Many favourites being out of position helped as well. I feared we would see tons of strategies and it would be extremely hard to follow but it was pretty decent in that respect. I really liked scraps including Hamilton and seeing him being overtaken by a Red Bull, a Ferrari and Massa holding him off was very fun. Vettel’s comeback drive was mega. Hulk’s tactics less so. Better than Bahrain and not worse than Australia.

  17. 7, because there was no fight for the win, and that is what it is about

    1. Yeah, look at all the teams pitting their drivers and saving their engines when they saw they couldn’t win the race. I heard Sauber, Manor and Renault aren’t even going to come to the other races because they can’t fight for the win.

      1. you know what i mean, of course the race was good, there was much overtaking and stuff, I didn’t give a 3 oder 5 ,but seven, it was fun to watch, but it would have been cooler if there had been a fight at the top too

  18. Trenthamfolk (@)
    17th April 2016, 9:10

    9/10 for me, great race! Top dollar from ROS apart from his start. Bad luck for RIC and his puncture… VET to blame for debris everywhere. VET’s excuses were hilarious, complaining about Kvyat driving too quickly – trying to deflect from the fact that he crashed into his team-mate… Still on about it on the podium! Doing himself no favours there. Unfortunate for Kimi and Hamilton, but that’s racing. Both did well to drive into the points. Couldn’t quite keep track of Merc’s strategy… not sure the Hamilton one worked as intended. Lovely overtaking down the field. Baffled why Grosjean wanted to retire two laps before the end.

    1. He wanted to retire so they can change the engine / gearbox for the next race without penalty, because he thought there was a major problem with the car (“underivable today” in his own words).

  19. DOTD for RIC, awesome Start, Bad Luck and a great fight back to p4

  20. First half of the race a 9/10 but the second half was a 7/8, decided to overall give it an 8 since there wasn’t a fight for first, is Nico now the luckiest man alive currently, 2nd race in a row his challengers get taken out after T1

    1. I fully agree

    2. I agree. Rosberg is extremely lucky. His victories have no value at the moment. There is no skill involved, just a bit of Sunday driving. I hope that Rosberg gets bad luck soon to make the championship more interesting.

      1. The red flag in Melbourne was perfect timing for him, because Lewis actually had the best strategy even though he didn’t have the best track positioning
        Bahrain, Seb’s engine gave up before the start and Bottas tried a move that was never going to work and today well we all know what happened this weekend @ultimateuzair
        I don’t hope for bad luck I just hope that no one else gets this bad luck

      2. @ultimateuzair Not sure who you back, but as long as you are prepared to call, for example, some of LH’s wins over the last few years the same way, then fair enough. But otherwise, remember NR still had to do the race cleanly etc etc. and he still had to calm himself mentally overnight and ahead of the race for all possible outcomes, and still wasn’t taking anything for granted prior to the race. Having things come out as they did, and have so far, is simply part of racing and always will be. No matter the level of luck, they don’t take trophies away for that. Hoping for a bloke to have bad luck seems to me to hope for less quality product on the track and more drivers just getting more ‘gifts’. Let’s just say odds are that over the season there is a good chance both NR and LH will have had a fairly equal share, no?

        To say NR’s victories have no value and took no skill greatly diminishes the sport that I presume you care enough about to watch.

    3. Why is he the luckiest man alive? Indeed, maybe he was a bit lucky because of LH’s problems on Saturday, but in the race, even if RIC or the Ferraris haven’t been in trouble, he would have still won comfortably. I say this because ROS was on the Soft tire early on, while the others had SuperSofts and required an early pit-stop. This would have allowed ROS to get into clean air and we all know how fast the Mercs are when clear track ahead.

      I understand that people want closer battles at top, but taking away from Nico a great drive and a very consistent early season is just unfair.

  21. A 10. Drama from start to podium. Including awesome Vettel race room fun. “YOU THERE! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?” or something like that… :D Awesome. Reminds me on Senna lecturing Schumacher… Young kid you cannot go for the gap like that… “No you didnt crash no.”

    I’ll rate drivers a bit latter aswell. picking DOTW will be hard.

    This does bring us to… All drivers who won opening 3 races in history then went on to win championship that year.

  22. One of the best GPs in a couple of years.

  23. Ok I will go out on a limb to say this. What we just saw between Ham and Massa forebodes what is likely to come this year. Ham is not fit enough to win the title this year. Yes, I said it.

    1. I am no Lewis Fan at all, but I don’t think we should write Him off, if He gets his Start right in the Future, and Bad Luck doesn’t strikt again, He is as competitive as ever

      1. I am a fan of F1 first and then a fan of his + a few others, but his performance with Massa today leaves nothing to write home about.

        1. To be fair to Hamilton, his car was probably feeling quite a handfull to drive after the damage it sustained Tata.

        2. ColdFly F1 (@)
          17th April 2016, 9:52

          Tata – Ham’s car (floor) was damaged!
          No foreboding here; he will have a new floor next race.

        3. @bacb, @coldfly
          Yes it is good for the championship that he managed at least to continue and even finish within points considering the image I saw where the front wing was stuck underneath the car and dragged along the track. But the point is until he caught up with the Williams, he had enough pace to catch up with them. So the expectation is to make the pass with the pace he had. It took him a while and pressure from Ricci who had caught up to get past Bottas and then he just couldn’t get past Massa.
          It is the third race in and Nico has built quite a good gap. All Nico needs now is a cool head and steady hands at the wheels, finishing no lower than second and he could reel the trophy in earlier than expected.

          1. Tata, seriously, his floor was damaged and he had greatly reduced downforce at the front. His tyres were going off about 10 laps faster than anyone he was competing against and he was totally dependent on his front wing for downforce. So clearly as soon as he got up behind someone, then his chance for overtaking goes out the window.
            You can’t fault him for that, it’s just not a sound argument to make.

  24. So it didn’t matter Mercedes ran away with it again. I thought that’s what all the complaining was about. Now it’s not?

    1. There’s a big difference between Mercedes running away with a race, and a procession. There are many races where Mercedes have run away with it, but have still been entertaining races due to the closeness of competition in the field or interesting circumstances mixing things up.

      The problem has always been with processions, not one team running away with a lead.

    2. P.S You sound like Bernie.

  25. Christian Horner on Sky showing why I don’t have much sympathy for Red Bull with regards to there engine supply.

    Giving tons of credit to the team for improving the car but not mentioning the improvements made by Renault even once. It was the same when they were winning, They were happy to give themselves all the credit without really talking about Renault apart from when they were criticizing them (Which they were doing long before the V6 turbo formula).

    1. So in the third year of v6, Renault manages to build an engine that last, while getting paid for it and RB should praise it? the way i see it, Renault still makes the worst engine and the only reason RB is doing good i because of RB. Renault is the only reason they are not winning races.

      1. Sviatoslav (@)
        17th April 2016, 9:55

        Honda makes the worst engine for F1.

        1. you sure? i think the honda has closed the gap to the renault engine.
          as they out perform the renault team with ease. and last year they couldn’t even get close to the lotus.

          1. Last year Lotus ran Mercedes engines.

    2. Yeah, I think its clear to everybody else that Renault has certainly improved their engine.

      1. JackFlash (Australia)
        18th April 2016, 4:13

        To be fair to RB in 2016 upsurge of TAG-Heuer badged Renault V6 PU, Red Bull have employed Mario Illien and invested in some in-house Power Unit developmental work themselves (upper end ICU, engine mapping and customised ERS). So this is one reason why the works Renault F1 Team are not seeing the same PU upturn I think.

        That… and a Reb Bull chassis is ‘way better’ then the Renault’s Lotus “hand-me-down”.

    3. So you base all of your hate on RBR on one interview with Horner on Sky yet you don’t even bother to see any of the praise Horner has already given Renault on their progress over winter beforehand. Or even the drivers of both teams. Or even Marko. Sorry but that’s just a poor opinion without seeing all the other interviews that everyone has done about the Renault PU.

      1. “hate”?

    4. Why should he mention Renault? They don’t even have a Renault engine anymore.

      1. Well, he could also just have mentioned again that ‘our engine manufacturer’ showed a lot of progress on drivability and traction, instead of only focusing on chassis @mike-dee

  26. And that’s the Championship now sewn up. Forget the points people like the BBC have been making, that every driver who won the first three races wins the championship … that’s just statistics bull. It’s mathematically borderline. Let me step you through it.

    Lewis is now 36 points behind his teammate in the standings. In order for him to catch Rosberg up, at a rate of 7 points per race (difference between 1st and 2nd) and assuming they do a 1-2 finish … it will take another six races just to catch and pass that points difference. That’s not quite half the season!

    Of course now that Lewis is on 2nd engine, he’s immediately on the blackfoot. Unless they can find a way to recondition unit 1 then we can forsee further penalties ahead later in the season. The championship is done with three races in, and it wasn’t even decided by the title contenders! It was dragging clutch (race 1), dragging clutch and Bottas (race 2), now a gearbox and powertrain failure (race 3).

    I’m done.

    1. From memory Lewis was further back than 36 points in 2014 & still came back to win the championship.

      1. No, I think the highest point gap there’s been between them was at Spa 2014, +29 for Rosberg.

    2. Considering that Lewis has been having all these issues, how are you sure that the shoe will not be on the other leg sometime later in the season?

      No way the championship is over. Ferrari and maybe RB might have a say as well I guess later in the season.

      1. Short version: change of team members.

        Long version: Merc made a big deal that they were going to mix up members of Nico’s garage team and Lewis’ for reasons of “equality between drivers”. Since Nico had a fairly bad shake of unreliability last couple years, you get the impression there’s a crap mechanic there who’s moved over?

        The only way the championship is back on, is for Lewis to win while Nico suffers a couple DNF’s. I’m not betting on that.

    3. Is there a special lottery somewhere that I’m unaware of that pays money to be the first to claim the F1 championship is over? I’ve been following this sport for 19 years now and every year it’s the same.

      1. Staggeringly there isn’t a permit that allows people to spout off instead of offering honest critique and awareness either.

      2. @npf1 I’m mentally preparing myself fulltime to be the first in 2017. Don’t take my dreams away from me.

    4. Hamilton only needs to score 2,3 more points per race than Rosberg. That’s perfectly fine. Rosberg won more than three races last year, and he wasn’t close to winning the title.

  27. Let’s applause kvyat but let’s burn bottas for Bahrain move… Suddenly going for the gap is now a good thing.. Brilliant!!

    1. I agree. Why is kvyat applauded and bottas booed? I guess vettel should have just hit kvyat instead of kimi…

    2. thinking the same thing. kvyat might have been investigated if he actually made contact with vettel im guessing

    3. there is a difference between turn 1 in china and Bahrain. Bahrain has a hairpin, china has a fast right hander.

      vettel went wide in china, kvyat saw the space and went for it. Hamilton didn’t go wide in Bahrain, he was still on the racing line. bottas saw a space that was gonna close at any moment, and effectively t-boned Hamilton.

      if kvyat went into china turn 1 and ran wide into vettel, then kvyat would be ‘burned’ too

  28. 9/10 some action at the front for the first 3 laps and then shame for ricciardo’s puncture but i think the mid-pack fights arent going to get much better and we should be thankful for it

  29. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    17th April 2016, 9:46

    5- Oh wait, wrong pick. It’s 7.

  30. Some great overtaking moves here so 8/10. Seb was over reacting to an incident which didn’t turn out bad for them, i can understand if it was bad and he was acting like that but all well if it ends well.

    Hamilton was struggling there but he did keep fighting.

  31. 9/10

    Good race throughout the field and confirms the midfield pretty much have the same pace. The true enjoyment watching opening races this season is on the midfielder where driver skill and strategy have more important part on the outcome of the race than the car differences.

    Will see how it goes after we go to European rounds and see the car developments.

  32. Sviatoslav (@)
    17th April 2016, 9:49

    This race again showed how terrible these tyres from Pirelli are, not to mention DRS. This is not racing. Medium tyres didn’t work at all.
    4 because of a lot of action.

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      17th April 2016, 9:55

      watched the wrong race @sviat!
      Medium tyres much better than expected; that’s why most drivers moved to them (after RAI/BUT trying them out and faring quite well).

      1. Sviatoslav (@)
        17th April 2016, 9:57

        Yeah, you watched the wrong race: the guys who used mediums during the second stint, lost towards the end of the race. Soft was much better.

        1. ColdFly F1 (@)
          17th April 2016, 11:48

          18 drivers used mediums (check for yourself) including 9 from the top 10. Some drivers used them even twice.
          You must be smarter than all those teams by claiming they ‘didn’t work at all’.

        2. @sviat
          I think you’re judging too much by people like HAM who had other damage and made the mediums look worse than they were. Other’s had much better luck with them.

        3. The soft tire was probably the superior race tire, but for the drivers outside the top 10 it was then a choice between one stint on supersofts or mediums. I think the mediums were the better, if not the safer, choice.

    2. Medium tyres worked an absolute treat: just watch Verstappen’s stint on them, barely lost time to people on softs.

    3. VES made the Medium tyre work, from 18th to 8th with maximum use of the Medium tyre through the 2nd stint.. topping it off with nice pace on the Soft tyre

  33. 6 out of 10 for me. It was a nice race, but also with a lot of questionable driving and not a whole lot of action among the midfield teams.

  34. If this is the standard for the rest of 2016 then I think we’re in for a treat or two. Hopefully.

  35. 9/10

    This season seems to become like 2011. Vettel serenely lead the title there with all his primary rivals, Webber, Button, Alonso, Hamilton got themselves involved in needless incidents or slower cars.
    Rosberg is calmly pulling away whereas his rivals are having bad starts, reliability issues and racing incidents..

  36. This is the first f1 race I’ve not watched in years, race was too early and not prepared to have a social media blackout for hours just to watch highlights. It feels liberating, final positions was close to what I expected it to be.

    1. Hehe, to bad for you. Race was really good. Watch it sometimes in the evening on youtube…

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      18th April 2016, 11:10

      From someone who really dislikes modern day F1, you picked a bad race to miss. It was really enjoyable with lots of action – some of it wasn’t even with DRS! It’s even worse when you realise you missed the race before Russia……

  37. I think the race speaks for itself but I am going to give it only a 8 because there was no fight for the first spot.

    A bit of surprise that all 22 finished the race considering the amount of incidents in the race.

  38. The first co-owner incident was Vettel’s fault at least as much as Kvyat’s. Kvyat was aggressive, sure, but Vettel could have avoided contact with Kimi if you watch all the replays closely. It’s a racing incident, and I understand Vettel’s initial frustration. He felt terrible about hitting a teammate he likes and respects. That’s racing.. It was an absolutely fantastic race, I’ve only been watching since ’98, so not that long, but I’d be over the moon if this was the quality of the average race. I’m so sick of everyone saying F1 is sick and needs fixing. It needs stability in the regulations, that’s all it needs.

  39. John Toad (@)
    17th April 2016, 10:20

    6 for me. No challenge for the lead, demolition derby driving, overtakes mostly due to differing tyre strategies. So if 5 is for an average race then it’s at most one point better.

    1. John Toad (@)
      17th April 2016, 10:23

      At least we have the first WEC race today which will probably be at least twice as interesting.

  40. Much like last time out, the race started rather intense and seemed to fall into regular patterns again after the halfway point. However, there was plenty going on still behind Rosberg and ultimately I found myself interested and engaged for the entire race, despite RTL’s commercial breaks and endless messing up of driver names (Button being overtaken by both Vettel and Raikkonen on the same lap, despite being 5 or so places apart and changing car numbers? Talk about Kvyat being second, then talk about how he’s overtaking Bottas? Wake up, guys..).

    That being said, I can see what Massa meant by ‘fake’ overtaking, but at least it’s on-track. Any overtake, no matter how much newer your tyres are, is still a risk and it’s good to see the Mercedes’ and Ferraris having to overtake so many cars after their pit stops and actually doing it. To me, at least.

    It’s been an entertaining season so far, but I do have to admit it’s rather draining to see my favorite drivers constantly out of the podium. This is probably what non-Schumacher fans felt like between 2000 and 2004.

    1. Rated 8/10 due to the second half being rather calm, by the way.

    2. Heiko Is an unbearable Idiot isn’t he.I quite like danner. Must be tough Listening to all that Garbage without punching him…

  41. Best dry race since the 2014 bahrain gp. The only missing ingredient for a 10 was a battle for the lead. 9/10

  42. Load of overtaking & incidents, was quite intense in the first half.
    Brundle said something like this:

    “It’s like F3 cars with 900 horsepowers!”

    1. Exactly. Squables allover the place…

  43. Very good race with good batles. Only Rosberg was cruising diring the race, all other drivers made good batles.

  44. 7/10 For the Race…. But
    1 point extra for watching Hamilton go back instead of forward in front of RIC and MAS … That is Happiness magnified ..8/10
    1 point extra for it to become the 4th race in F1 history to have all drivers finish, that too when it was all Bam Bam Boom Boom… 9/10
    1 point extra indeed for the Pre-podium and Podium…The tussle of Vettel, who wants to tell Ferrari in every way possible that it was not him and thus he should not be punished, and Kvyat who seriously threatens to snatch away the title of “Iceman” from Kimi.
    Although I could have deducted point for the Yellow pants worn by the podium interviewer, but that guy was having fun, And that is what we all want as spectators and fan in F1 .. FUN …
    So 10/10 For The PRC GP

  45. I’d like to give it a 10, as it was great fun, but because Nico wasn’t challenged, it gets 9.

    If Renault could make sure that their new engine is a great one, we might get more races like that.

  46. A solid 9/10 for good racing everywhere around the field.

    -1 for no contention for 1st.

    I would give a 10/10 for a race with an intense contention for 1st and boring racing everywhere else, but not the other way around.

  47. Voted 9. No race without a fight for the win can get a perfect ten from me. But apart from that it was brilliant fun most of the time.

    Sad we haven’t got a fight for the win between Rosberg, the Ferraris and maybe DR. Especially for Raikkonen who had the edge in Shanghai over Vettel and in the end lost 8 points to him in the WDC. But these things can’t come into account when considering objectively how good or bad the race was

  48. 7/9 Just alot of broken cars limping around.

    1. That was my thought. Sure there was a lot of action, but way too much contact and damage in the opening laps that spoiled the rest of the race. Could just watched NASCAR for that. Although it could be that my frustration with F1 so far is clouding my opinion. I just want to see a good clean race.

  49. Race wise 9/10
    Cover-wise 2/10

    Seriously I was frustrated by the lack of coverage of overtaking… How many rounds did we watch Hamilton doing absolutely nothing to Massa, while there was some real action going on.

    1. The coverage was my biggest complaint as well. I kept checking my Laptop to see what was going on off-screen. At other races, I just kept watching the screen, closing the laptop. They missed so many overtakes, and they also didn’t bother to do “Replays” of them.

      As a NL guy, I keep a special eye out for what goes on with the Toro Rosso guys. Towards the end, Verstappen had to pass Sainz. In Australia, this battle made headlines that lasted a week. Today, nothing. Weird. I guess you need to be shouting 18+ words to get the media attention.

      And how about Wehrlein? Another great race from him. It wasn’t until his tyres started fading, only then could the field start passing him. Very well done.

      I gave the race a 9. Time flew by with all the stuff going on. But.. not battle for 1st.

  50. The battle for the win was the only thing missing, but other than that a fairly decent race.

  51. Another good proposition marred by clown tyres and DRS. 7 out of 10 for action.

  52. I’m a bit confused why some people don’t seem to understand why Hamilton struggled so much at the end, considering he was on an old set of medium tires and also had damage to the leading edge of the floor which is one of the most important aero parts of the car.

    The midfield and top 10 fighting (apart from the top 2-3) was great, but again it felt like another race for the lead ruined by the start for me. I think had the ferrari’s not collided, which also meant Riccardo wouldn’t have gotten a puncture from debris. Ricciardo would have backed Rosberg up into the ferrari’s and the race could have been epic. I think there still would have been great battles behind but we would have also seen multiple competitive cars at the front battling. And also I think if a ferrari would have gotten infront of Rosberg we could have had an entire race of battling for the lead since it does appear like the mercedes is very sensitive aero wise. I think Rosberg was basically gifted the win today by the first corner incident.

  53. The race was interesting to start with but petered off towards the end. There were some good full on racing moves (ie between cars that didn’t have vastly different tyre wear and without DRS) in there, especially impressed with Hamilton’s move on Bottas and Wehrlein held his own when he was running highly after the safety car. Rosberg’s almost obscene good fortune continues, so I’m looking forwards to a race which doesn’t leave him relying so heavily on that.

  54. Good race.

    Lots of battles up and down the field and most, if not all the cars seemed pretty competetive at various stages. Quite impressive that there was no retirements at all and the race was still quite exciting.

    Ricciardo probably did the best job out there for me. It’s a shame he had the puncture, a podium was certainly deserved and more promisingly the Red Bull’s clearly got the pace to do it. Great recovery drives from Vettel and Raikkonen and Kvyat did brilliantly.

    Bottas and Williams were a bit anonymous and seem to be losing performance on a race by race basis. McLaren were also a bit vague really – promising but vanished towards the end. Renault are looking pretty woeful.

    If Rosberg doesn’t win the title this year he never will.

    1. Agree with all of this. I was disappointed with the McLarens. They seemed to be on for some minor points early on but as you say, they faded quite badly really. They looked more competitive in qualifying.

    2. agree about the mclarens. I hope it was a bad strategy, rather than a lack of pace, that made them fade towards the end

  55. 4/10 – better than the last race, but still no real competition for the win

  56. Still waiting for a tight, pressurised race at the front between two Mercedes and two Ferraris…maybe it’ll never happen.

    1. Both Ferrari and the Mercedes of Hamilton have had driver issues, strategy issues, damage and reliability issues. Rosbergso side of the garage including the driver have been perfect. Surely there will be a nice clean race between the 4 sometime soon.

  57. I don’t know if I was just in a bad mood or the C4 highlights weren’t good but the race never really captured me. Gave it a 7 because objectively there was a lot of good battles, but I didn’t really get excited.

    1. @george I completely agree – I feel like I watched a different race to most people here.

      Half of the highlights reel was cars breezing past with DRS and the strategies didn’t make much sense without context. Hamilton did a 15 lap stint in about 5 minutes mid-race!

      All of that and the fact we all knew who who going to win on Friday means I scored it a 6, but I feel Channel 4 could have given us a lot more to get excited about.

  58. I woudve given it 10 if Rosberg got the puncture instead of Ricciardo.

  59. 8/10 for me. Would have given 8.5 if we had the option. There was some good overtaking before DRS was enabled even and there were a few instances of overtakes that were not DRS driven. Lots of action right through the field except for up front.
    My driver of the day was Ricciardo. Thought he did very well to recover after the puncture. Great overtake on Lewis. Lewis was unlucky though with the damage and I think he would have been 4th or 5th without it.

  60. This has to go down as the best race in f1 history. ” I think we should go to the second strategy”, “we are already on the second strategy ” just about explains the race

  61. Good race, kept me busy, gave a 9 !

  62. Gave it a 8….well worth getting up early to watch it love….
    2 points…..we still need a challenge for the lead towards the end to make it more exciting
    and I do not blame Vettel for his swerve into his team mate….We are watching from above as the Red Bull charges through….Vettel has the smallest mirror in the world to see what is coming…..think most of us would have done the same

    1. Sorry should have said live…not love

  63. This is a classic F1 race of recent times, an exciting 15-20 laps and then considerably drops off. Id give it 8/10 for the first half and a 4/10 for the last 37 laps. Overall I gave it a 6 because I felt the DRS was far too strong and I feel this new tyre strategy has made races interesting but really ruined wheel to wheel action. Drivers have little incentive to defend because they know they can overtake them near the end of the race

  64. Was it just me, or did the first few laps before DRS was enabled have more good racing than I have seen in a long time? I wonder what a DRS-free race would look like. The same cars and drivers, just no DRS.

  65. I rate 7, it was good race.

  66. DRS overtakes and crazy tyre options left me wondering if this was a real race…wrong direction for me.

  67. Motorsport Magazine summed up my feelings pretty well: “–a big overtaking-fest that looked very dramatic, but meant less than it looked.”

    I gave the race 6/10.

  68. 7/10 for me. Lack of lead fight and obviously construed SC pulled down the score.

  69. I found the race uninteresting, if we have to root for who is getting 6th or 7th place, what is the point. Mediocre F1 has put us in an artificial state of “like”
    I want to see 2 Mercs battle 2 Ferraris because we know who is fast. Hamilton starting last, Ferrari/Red Bull collision, all the fun gone. Watching ROS cruise to a win, big deal.

  70. I gave the race an 8, there was no real entertainment at the front but the action further down made up for it again.

    It was another straight forward win for Rosberg with the only problem being losing the lead at the start, but it was a formality that he would get past Ricciardo sooner rather than later.

    With a few drivers having to recover after problems on the opening laps and with different tyre strategies there seemed to be plenty going on throughout the race.

    However I don’t know if it was just because I saw the Grand Prix via the Channel 4 highlights show, but it didn’t seem that easy to follow at times what was going on and why some cars were where they were at certain parts of the race.

    Usually when I just see the highlights although I feel I don’t get a real sense of how the race develops I usually feel that they cover all the main points, but that wasn’t the case this time. That may be because there was so much going on or simply that my perception was wrong.

    An example was when the safety car came out and a few drivers came in to the pits, we later saw a reply of Vettel overtaking some cars on the pit entry, at the time I thought that wasn’t allowed during a safety car period, obviously it was as there was no penalty, but it wasn’t mentioned until after the race that the opportunity arose for Vettel to do this because Hulkenberg had been slowing down as Force India were pitting both cars on the same lap.

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