Chinese Grand Prix thread

[Craven Morehead]

Lots of side stories for this one:
Diffuser have been found to be legal.
McLaren has an interim diffuser design on their cars, Hamilton is trying a new front wing.
Ron Dennis will no longer be involved with McLaren's F1 program (only the sports car from now on).
Red Bull/Torro Rosso has had significant aero upgrades.
The tires selected for this race are even softer than used in Melbourne (to much dismay).

[Craven Morehead]

All Renault front row. But its a Renault powered Red Bull on the pole with Vettel. Damn, that kid os good. Next to him is Alonso. Who is pretty damned good, as well. Evidently, the new aero bit used by Red Bull are pretty good as Weber is 3rd. Not sure why their sister team (Torro Roso) was so slow (same cars but Ferrari powered).

Race will be in a few hours, but I'll be sawing logs. DVR and watch it over coffee in the morning.

[Daniel_]

Safety Car start from the rain.

Red Bulls and Renault have almost no fuel - Brawn were faster in practice once you adjust for fuel load, apparently, and Hammilton's fuel load shows he's 1 stopping, compared to Button's 2 stopper.

It's looking interesting so far, and the race hasn't started...

[Strange Famous]

Lewis was a bit all over the shop, but he picked up a few points... at least Ferrari failed again

This season is looking interesting - other teams are starting to catch up to Brawn already. Shame that the Force India guy went out so late on and denied them a point.

[Craven Morehead]

Originally Posted by Strange Famous

This season is looking interesting

A huge understatement. This is one of the most interesting seasons in years.

I like wet races but this one was a little too wet for my taste. Congrats to Vettel. What a huge talent.

Did anyone notice that the anthem played for the constructor, the wrong one was played? God Save the Queen is not the Austrian anthem.

Looking forward to Bahrain.

[Strange Famous]

They play the UK anthem cos its a UK based team - they always play both anthems, the drivers and the constructors.

[Craven Morehead]

taken elsewhere

04/19/09 China plays wrong anthem to mark RBR win (GMM) Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber had just secured an historic one-two debut victory for the team, but Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said one element of Sunday's proceedings left him distinctly "disappointed".

After German winner Vettel mouthed the final words of the 'Das Deutschlandlied' on the podium, Austrian Marko then prepared to bask in the national pride of the Austrian anthem.

'Land der Berge, Land am Strome' in Austrian means 'Land of the mountains, land on the river', sang to the melody of a 1790s song by the composer Johann Holzer.

Red Bull, owned by the Austrian energy drink magnate Dietrich Mateschitz, competes under a racing license by the Austrian motor racing authority OAMTC, the Osterreichischer Automobil, Motorrad und Touring Club.

However, to mark the victory of the winning constructor, the loudspeakers of the Shanghai International Circuit instead exclaimed God Save the Queen, apparently because Red Bull is based in Milton-Keynes (UK), while team boss Christian Horner is British.

[Jetée]

Wet ones are nice, but usually have anticlimactic finishes, like so, having gaps of 5-15 sec. intervals between first, second, and third place. Though the Malaysian GP finish was especially great.