China 2013

[WickerBill]

Question for those who watched qualifying:

Why wouldn't a team send a driver out at the very beginning of Q3 on the yellow tire, get one lap in that may slot you into P4 or P5, then come in and do a lap on the medium tire so you can start the race on mediums?

[emjaya]

Because you have to start on the tyre that you had on when you did your fastest lap, I believe.

What do I win? :gomer:

[WickerBill]

Okay, that's the part I didn't know.

[Elmo T]

Will be interesting.

Vettel is clearly quick, but can he drive a smart race from midfield with strategy as the focus?

[Insomniac]

Massa doing one more lap on the soft tires really hurt him. I never thought Vettel had a shot to close 11s in 3 laps, but wow. I wondered why they waited so long to pit. I was beginning to think maybe they're pit box is before S/F and he was going to try and stop on the last stop and not lose P2. Then I thought they must have a rule requiring they do at least one lap and finally looking closer, it seems S/F isn't where the first car lines up but behind the starting grid (and perhaps before the pit boxes even start) given the point where they said Hamilton had beat Vettel.

[Insomniac]

Red Bull’s Mark Webber will drop three places on the grid for next weekend’s 2013 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix after stewards penalised him for his collision with Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne in Sunday’s Shanghai race. And Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez will be demoted five grid places at Sakhir for his crash with Force India’s Adrian Sutil.

[datachicane]

I think RB held off on Vettel's stop as long as they did in order to maximize tire performance. Vettel's options started going off on his last lap- I suspect another couple of laps would have put him on par (or worse) with the performance of the primes, but with a looming cliff.

[Andrew Longman]

I think RB held off on Vettel's stop as long as they did in order to maximize tire performance. Vettel's options started going off on his last lap- I suspect another couple of laps would have put him on par (or worse) with the performance of the primes, but with a looming cliff.Holding off one more lap might have worked better for him on those last two laps of the race.

No resentments here though. Especially against Hamilton whose ego apparently did not factor as much in his move to Mercedes. :gomer:

[Insomniac]

I think RB held off on Vettel's stop as long as they did in order to maximize tire performance. Vettel's options started going off on his last lap- I suspect another couple of laps would have put him on par (or worse) with the performance of the primes, but with a looming cliff.

Well, I think that is more about how he drove them to close that gap in 3 laps. The tires should've held up for at least as long as they lasted for the people who started on them (qualifying+full fuel). Also, I don't think they were going off, he just needed to make a pass, he would've had enough for Hamilton with one more lap. Maybe he could've caught Kimi.