Cool weather and chance of rain in China

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We could see our third consecutive rain-affected F1 event this weekend.

Weather forecasts for the Shanghai region this weekend indicate Friday and Saturday will stay dry but there’s a chance of light rain on Sunday which could affect the Grand Prix.

It’s expected to stay cool in Shanghai with temperatures below 20C. Friday could be as cool as 12C.

Rain has affected three of the last four Chinese Grands Prix. Last year was the first time the race was held early in the season, in April rather than October.

The Japan Meterological Agency has a weather satellite which covers the Shanghai area which we can use to keep an eye on the weather in the build-up to Sunday’s race: find it here.

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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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24 comments on “Cool weather and chance of rain in China”

  1. LehonardEuler
    12th April 2010, 18:04

    Chance of rain for sunday is 60%:
    http://www.weather.com/weather/weekend/CHXX0116
    Hope it rains again!

    1. Lets hope this time it really rains not like in Malaysia- everyone waits and nothing happens

  2. Even with rain, last year was dull. I’m expecting a near repeat of last year… unless Red Bull botches qualifying or their car breaks again.

    1. I think it was quite good last year, but if it doesn’t rain, we’re doomed to a race worse than Bahrain.

    2. Last years was dull. QUE!!?? what planet you from it was damn fun.

      1. I don’t think last year was a dull race by any mean. We saw some great racing.

    3. Well from ratings by visitors to this site after each race, China 2009 had a rating of 6.69 above the season average of 6.352.

      https://www.racefans.net/2009/11/07/brazil-voted-best-race-of-2009-turkey-named-worst-of-a-bad-bunch/

  3. Mercedes’ turn to win this week, isn’t it?

    Fiver on Rosberg. ;)

    1. I want Michael to win, his last win was here in 2006 in changeable weather condition.

  4. why is colder weather harsher on tyre degradation?

    1. It’s difficult to get heat into the tyres when it’s colder, which mean that they grip less and can start to ‘grain’ which in turn means that they grip even less and slide about more, which means that they wear faster.

      1. cheers! very good answer.
        btw. some website are reporting even higher chances of chance of rain!
        like- http://weather.msn.com/tenday.aspx?wealocations=wc:CHXX0116&q=Shanghai%2c+CHN+forecast:tenday

  5. Why do so many people think last year’s Chinese GP was boring. It wasn’t the greatest wet race there’s ever been, but it was still pretty exciting.

    There was the Webber/ Button battles, Vettel overtaking Button for the lead, Buemi driving into the back of Vettel behind the safety car, Hamilton and Massa fighting their way through the field, Kubica and Trulli’s great crash, Piquet’s countless spins, Sutil’s crash from 6th, and probably loads more stuff I’ve forgot

    1. Nakajima gave Piquet a run for his money on the spins front if I remember rightly! I too thought it was one of the year’s better races.

      1. Hamilton too had a bit of a spin-happy day, got outperformed fair and square by Kovy!

  6. Rain means Sutil stays in my fantasy teams! Then i just have to pray for ferrari…

    regardless, i expect a new winner…but its still an 8 way battle (9 if you count that guy with all those titles, what was his name again?).

  7. I’m sure the Ferrari’s wont complain about the cooler weather considering how they’ve struggled in the heat already this season (Alonso’s blowout in Malaysia and both Massa and Alonso needed to change after qualifying in Bahrain).

    I suspect this year wont be quite as processional as previous years, with or without rain at least I hope this is the case. With the track being more abbrassive, and the lower temperatures, tyres will grain quicker than in previous races. Hopefully this will push some teams into considering a two stop strategy. I sense that Button and Kubica will need this as their silky driving styles often lead to their tyres cooling off much quicker

  8. bring on the rain… Could be a great race if it rains. Without rain during either quali or race it could be a pretty dull race.

  9. If it rains I think Red Bull will be the quickest car out there. & we may have a good chance to see what Schumacher can do in rain.

  10. I’m just hoping we get to see a finish out of Kobayashi and Petrov.

  11. 2007: But-wrenchingly exciting. Wet race.
    2008: A bit dull. Dry race.
    2009: Exciting. Wet race.
    2010: Who knows, but rain wouldn’t go amiss!

    1. If it tends to deliver rain on a bi-annual basis then this year may be fairly dull :P

  12. Terry Fabulous
    13th April 2010, 3:56

    You’re damn right, I can’t belive that Alonso blocked Hamilton in the pits to stop him getting that last lap in.

    1. What’s that got to do with anything. He is saying that he wants a dry race.

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