Category: China

Vettel leads Red Bull front row in China 1

China / F12010 / Formula 1 / Qualify / Red Bull

Vettel leads Red Bull front row in China

Red Bull sent an emphatic message to their F1 rivals when they locked out the front row of the grid for the Chinese Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel (1:34.558) hooking up a fine final lap to pip team mate Mark Webber (1:24.806) to top spot.

With the F1 paddock speculating since the start of the season that the team had a ride height control system on its car to explain its 100% pole position record, the FIA have recently issued a rule clarification banning such devices. As Vettel crossed the line Red Bull team principal Christian Horner shouted on the team radio, “Who needs ride height control!”

Mclaren top times on Friday in Shanghai 1

China / F12010 / Featured / Formula 1 / Practice

Mclaren top times on Friday in Shanghai

Lewis Hamilton overtook team-mate Jenson Button at the top of the practice timesheets during the second session in China this afternoon, posting a time of 1m35.217s to end the day as the fastest man on-track. The Briton took to the top of the standings with just over half way gone in the session, going half a second quicker than Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, and although he failed to improve for the rest of the session, he remained fastest.

Rosberg later improved his own time to come within a quarter of a second of the McLaren, setting a 1m35.465s seven minutes after Hamilton took over at the top. Jenson Button had to be happy with third place on a time of 1m35.593s, and was fortunate to finish ahead of Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher who was less than a hundredth of a second adrift in fourth on a 1m35.602s.

Button got pole in Monaco ahead of Raikkonen 2

Bahrain / BRAWN GP / China / F12009 / Formula 1 / Monaco / Qualify

Button got pole in Monaco ahead of Raikkonen

Jenson Button once again got pole position this season at Monaco Grand Prix. Despite his struggle in early stages of Qualify today he did an exceptional lap at dying moments of Q3 and secured pole position. Raikkonen was second just 0.025 seconds behind Button despite he was the fastest man in Q2 with almost six tenths quicker than last years best Q2 time. Barrichello from Brawn was third ahead of Vettel in fourth who didn’t seem to be on pace this week. Massa was fifth who crashed his car at the beginning of Q1 but was lucky enough to continue. Rosberg was sixth, Kovalainen seventh and Webber was eight before tomorrow’s race.

The real drama was Hamilton’s crash at first session after posting the best first sector time. Hamilton seemed very strong all week here and he could deliver a very strong performance today if he didn’t crash. Another big surprise was seeing both cars of teams BMW and Toyota to be knocked out in Q1 while Force India and Torro Rosso drivers were in top 15. Car weights are yet to be published by FIA, but most of the time strategy is more important at this circuit than the raw speed.

Driver Quotes after Chinese Grand Prix 3

China / F12009 / Ferrari / Formula 1 / Mclaren / Race / Red Bull / Renault

Driver Quotes after Chinese Grand Prix

BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli on their dramatic collision; Force India’s Adrian Sutil on being less than six laps from scoring his team’s first points; and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber on their spectacular one-two victory. All 20 drivers and senior team personnel report back on Sunday’s race…

Vettel leads Red Bull one-two in Shanghai 2

China / F12009 / Formula 1 / Race / Red Bull

Vettel leads Red Bull one-two in Shanghai

Sebastian Vettel won his second Grand Prix and Red Bull’s first with a sensational drive in treacherous conditions, dominating from start to finish to run out a 11-second winner from team-mate Mark Webber, making it a Red Bull 1-2. So treacherous were conditions that the race was started behind the safety for the first eight laps, from when Vettel pulled clear, his win never truly in doubt.

A second safety car period mid-way through the race bunched the field up again, but Vettel was unfazed and drove peerlessly, which included a brilliant overtake manoeuvre on Jenson Button just before the Briton pitted for the second time.

Vettel secured RedBull’s first ever pole position 0

China / F12009 / Formula 1 / Qualify

Vettel secured RedBull’s first ever pole position

Sebastian Vettel secured Red Bull Racing’s debut pole position in a thrilling qualifying session in Shanghai this afternoon. Completing just one run in Q3, Vettel lapped in a time of 1m36.184s to displace team-mate Mark Webber from top spot, the Australian had clocked a 1m36.466s. Q2 had seen Vettel top the times, but the major surprise in Q3 was Fernando Alonso, who secured second place with a lap of 1m36.381s.

Behind Vettel, Alonso and Webber, the Brawn duo of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button endured their worst qualifying session of the season in fourth and fifth respectively, on times of 1m36.493s and 1m36.532s. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli was next in 6th (1m36.835s), followed by Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m37.397s), Kimi Raikkonen (1m38.089s), Lewis Hamilton (1m38.595s) and the ever-impressive Seabstien Buemi (1m39.321s).

Q & A with Martin Whitmarsh 0

China / F12009 / Formula 1 / Mclaren

Q & A with Martin Whitmarsh

Q. Is Ron Dennis’s announcement related in anyway to the events of the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix?

Martin Whitmarsh: Ron has said that it is his decision and it is not related to an F1 issue. He has decided that it is time to move to a new challenge, and that is what he has done.

Q. Did he not do that when he handed over the team principal role to you?

MW: The first phase of that was to relinquish his role as team principal, but he was still CEO and he was still my boss at that time. So it was a further step of what he announced in March.