Rosberg’s China win rated fifth-best race of last five years

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The Chinese Grand Prix was rated the fifth-best race since the beginning of 2008 by F1 Fanatic readers.

It was rated a strong 8.648, as Nico Rosberg took his first race win, ahead of a frantic battle for second place.

However this was still lower than the rating for last year’s Chinese Grand Prix, which is the highest we’ve recorded so far.

Here’s what F1 Fanatic readers had to say:

It started a bit slow, fewer overtakes then we’d have liked but it wasn’t awful, just a slow burner until it was apparent that everyone was on different strategies and that’s when the excitement built into the crescendo that was the final 20 laps. Great stuff!

If Button hadn’t had that bad pit stop and was able to challenge Nico for the win, then I’d have made it ten, possibly.

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

Like many others, TommyB appreciated the race for second:

That battle for second was one of the best things I’ve ever seen in F1. First half of the race was a 5/10 second half an 11/10.
TommyB

It was a tough day for the teams’ strategists. Nick.UK summed up their difficulty nicely:

They had to decide whether to keep position on a track where DRS wasn’t helping and try and defend, or come in and lose 10-15 positions and try and get them all back with only 15 odd laps left.

They had to make a call, and despite the result for Raikkonen I still think it was the right one. They could pit and near enough guarantee no points, or stay out and keep some, as Vettel managed.
Nick.UK

There was debate surrounding the complexity of the different strategies, and whether it was a good thing:

I loved all the confusion with the strategies. I don’t mind using my brain to try and figure out the real race positions when people are on different strategies. Personally I love it.
infernojim

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

However not everyone raved about the race:

Maybe I watched a different race to many here. The first three-quarters was very dull. Any chance of a fight for the win was ended with Button’s last pit, the DRS didn’t work and the overtakes were a mainly result of tyres falling off the cliff and it was fairly predictable who was going to suffer (i.e. the ones who two-stopped).

Obviously the ones who didn’t suffer so much deserve a lot of credit – Grosjean, Vettel and of course Rosberg.
Brum33

Michael Schumacher’s retirement disappointed many who wanted to see a battle for the lead. Amid some criticism of the pit-crews Arijitmaniac argued that it’s not fair to blame one man:

He was doing his job. For whatever reason the wheel failed to be secured, but he was trying really hard to get it secured when Michael left.

In such tense situations these mistakes can happen. I see this more as a failure to act as a team, can’t put the blame on one man.
Arijitmaniac

Icthyes pointed out the historical significance of Rosberg’s victory:

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

Although Kimi Raikkonen may disagree, some were sad to see the race finish:

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

Previous rate the race results

2012 Rate the race results

RaceRating
2012 Chinese Grand Prix8.648
2012 Malaysian Grand Prix8.542
2012 Australian Grand Prix7.662

What did you make of the Chinese Grand Prix? Was it the best race of the season so far? Have your say in the comments.

2012 Chinese Grand Prix

Browse all 2012 Chinese Grand Prix articles

Image © Mercedes

23 comments on “Rosberg’s China win rated fifth-best race of last five years”

  1. This is the second year in a row where the race has been extremely close between strategies and going for a two stop means you only just get caught by the three stoppers right near the end. I think that’s what made the races so exciting.

    Why is it so close between the two? A perfect combination of tyre wear and race length?

  2. I think Bahrain race was better, but it won’t be rated among highest, because some people confuse politics with sport.

    1. It’s not about confusing politics with sport: if people less enjoyed the race because of the political situation (like me), then they may express that!

      1. I don’t agree.

        The whole point of the poll is to decide which races were good and which weren’t in terms of the racing (or so I would think). That is why we are not rating the race result. I fail to see why that would be the only exception to all the reasons that could affect one’s opinion of a race. Clearly, the race result influences some people’s enjoyment of the race – that’s why last year’s Chinese GP was, in my eyes, overrated.

        Further, if we accept that factors that don’t have a direct connection to the actual racing can have an influence on whether I enjoyed a race or not, I’ll just rate European races higher than non-European races because they are held at a better time or rate the Spanish GP low because I don’t like FC Barcelona. If anything, I’d argue that the result of a race is much more relevant to whether the racing was interesting or not (for example, it seems to be obvious that a race is more enjoyable if a non-favourite wins) than something external to the action on the track.

        Keith has to decide whether he wants people to cast votes about their enjoyment of the racing or of the race in a broad sense. If it’s the former we should be voting (like I hitherto thought we do) on whether we enjoyed the race irrespective of any external reasons and who we support. If it’s the latter, technically we’re allowed to rate a race low because we don’t like the national flag of the country that the race is held in.

        1. Well it’s too bad you don’t agree. Many didn’t enjoy the race because it was tainted. And rate the race is based on opinion, so it’s up to the individual. You can vote however you want.

          1. What’s really strange about that comment is that I seem to recall you telling people that they shouldn’t let the fortunes of a favoured driver influence their opinion, and rather rate the race based on the actual racing.

        2. @Victor

          Agree 100% with you.

          Last years Chinese GP was blown out of all proportion because of who won. On top of the fact that his overtake on Vettel was voted one of the best of the year!! You’ve got to be kidding. Driving around someone who’s tyres are shot to hell hardly constitutes one of the overtakes of the season!

      2. +1 Victor

        “The China race was a bad race bad because I had a toothache.”

    2. I enjoyed the Chinese GP much more than the Bahrain race, and I really didn’t care about the politics. This may have been because the highlights I saw on the BBC seemed very disjointed for the Bahrain race though, or maybe my brain just didn’t work with the later air time.

    3. @osvaldas31 I full agree; a shame that many people, includng some which have been around F1F for ages, and should, better than anyone, know the rating was to the racing seen on track, voted on the FIA’s and FOM’s decisions to race there in first place.

    4. Also China tends to be always over rated and in the end whats happening in China is far worse than in Bahrain people in bahrain are starting to fight for their cause and really start to understand that people should elect governments in China people are yet far away of starting to think after Mao things got really quiet in China. For those who keep seeing things wrong just listen to Jackie Steward.

    5. While I do heavily agree, I also think that Bahrain was worse than China. Granted, it’s Bahrain, so we shouldn’t have expected to see as good of a race anyway.

  3. What can I say more ? I woke up to watch it and were eagerly anticipating the race because the quali had thrown such a great line up and that 2011 had been absolutely brilliant. And I wasn’t disappointed. Few seconds between n°2 and n°13, tight racing, and a new worthy race winner, what more to ask for ? Obviously, not a legendary race, but a very good entertainment and a race I really enjoyed.

  4. But not Rosberg’s win per say, but the competition from 2nd to 12th position.

  5. China was an outstanding race! I didn’t know who was where, what was happening and why someone is 14 after being 2nd! It was one of the best races last season and this season it’s done really well again. I think we may of seen the best race of the season, up to the drivers to prove me wrong.

  6. Although I’ve been quite critical of the tyres in the last few days, this was an exciting race at the end that deserved at least an 8.

  7. It was certainly a good race, but I think it’s overhyped, although I agree with the rating.

    1. +1, Likewise myself.

  8. 5th best race of last 5 years? I can think of 7 better straight away: Spa 2008, Spa 2009, Oz & China 2010, China, Monaco & Canada 2011

  9. Infernojim nailed it really. Strategy is a good thing, we’re all fanatics here, right? ;) That said, I did struggle too. It was a nice problem to have. China is turning into a success story. I hope it stays that way.

  10. I think one of the main reasons the Chinese GP is consistently such a good race is down to the design of the track mainly in that it is not a ” point and squirt” track like so many of the recent tracks, those long variable radius corners require the highest degree of skill to get right and carry momentum through, they also provide great opportunities for an attacking driver, these bends matched to a couple of good straights make strong demands on set-up, wish we had more tracks like it.

    1. Politically, China is not perfect but it is progressing rapidly in the right direction, that is what matters.

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