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How do you do, fellow kids!
hello!!
Hello everyone and welcome back for second practice for the 2019 Chinese Grand Prix
Here’s a reminder of the times from first practice:
Vettel 1’33.911
Hamilton 1’34.118
Leclerc 1’34.167
Verstappen 1’34.334
Bottas 1’34.653
Ricciardo 1’35.239
Gasly 1’35.428
Kvyat 1’35.447
Stroll 1’35.466
Grosjean 1’35.507
Magnussen 1’35.517
Hulkenberg 1’35.591
Norris 1’35.631
Albon 1’35.695
Raikkonen 1’35.729
Sainz Jnr 1’35.756
Perez 1’35.820
Kubica 1’36.847
Russell 1’37.619
Based on what we’ve seen so far we can conclude one thing: Antonio Giovinazzi has no luck in Shanghai.
On his first appearance here two years ago he did very little running on Friday because of weather and visibility problems. Then he crashed in qualifying and aquaplaned into a barrier in the race.
This morning he did just two installation laps in practice due to an engine problem…
Second practice already going better for Giovinazzi in that he’s set a time…
By the way, just saw Hulk and Ricciardo’s helmet’s for this race – I suppose nostalgia, but – those look awesome and I’d love them to keep them like that for the rest of the season!
Yeah very cool! Kimi asked for an open faced one and wasn’t allowed lol! (He said so when asked about his helmet in the press conference.)
Yeah, read that yesterday while travelling – Kimi has been a bit more outgoing like that, pretty good to see/hear, LOL :)
So both mercs have a spin.
Grosjean is told he has a broken front wing, from the radio message it sounds like he wasn’t told under after he braked for turn 14, which may have surprised him…
It is a bit troubling that Haas keep having little bodywork failures like this.
Front wing failures shouldn’t be little bodywork failures, that should be a serious cause for concern with the team.
Hiii All! :)
Lol Verstappen “I know I have 8 gears”.
Second practice is over and Valtteri Bottas is fastest for Mercedes. Here are the times in full plus session report and visual gaps:
https://www.racefans.net/2019/04/12/bottas-pips-vettel-in-second-practice/
And don’t forget to enter your predictions for this weekend’s race here:
https://www.racefans.net/predictions/
Hello everyone and welcome to RaceFans Live for the final practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix!
Good morning, Keith (and fellow fanatics). Thanks for the round-up, I was wondering where that went :)
A change to note overnight – Pirelli have increased the minimum rear tyre pressures for slicks by 1psi to 19.5psi.
Only Williams have set times so far. As of yesterday none of the teams had lapped any quicker than they did last year, but expect that to change as we get towards qualifying.
Quick lap by Vettel – 0.2s off last year’s best in final practice, which he set.
Bottas 0.7s off Vettel but the Mercedes driver is on mediums. Yesterday Pirelli estimated the mediums are 1.1-1.2s slower than the softs, which is more than they expected.
Still nothing from Red Bull so far, 25 minutes into this session, they looked in good shape yesterday.
Camera man zooming in on the edge of the “Mission Winnow” to make it look as much like a Marlboro chevron as possible.
Not a very encouraging first lap from Gasly even accepting he’s on mediums, over 2s off Vettel.
Verstappen meanwhile goes fifth on softs but is 1.2s off Vettel – little sign of Red Bull’s pace from yesterday so far.
Still none of the teams have lapped quicker than they did last year:
Alfa Romeo: +0.1
Toro Rosso: +0.81
McLaren: +0.91
Renault: +1.6
Mercedes: +1.7
Red Bull: +1.75
Racing Point: +2.02
Williams: +2.06
Ferrari: +2.13
Haas: +2.26
Interesting that Bottas managed to improve to within 0.57s of Vettel on the mediums.
A 1’36.176 for Kubica moves him ahead of Russell, Russell responds and is quicker by five-hundredths.
Norris off at the final corner. Vettel starting a quick one on softs.
Vettel fails to improve, he lost a lot of time at the exit of turn nine.
10 minutes to go…
Big hit for Albon. He was gathering it up at the exit of the final corner but the car gripped when he reached the asphalt and it fired him into the barrier.
I was wondering if Giovanazzi was going to crash here like he did last time but Albon crashed in almost the same way.
That’s the end of final practice with Bottas ahead of Vettel. Here’s the session report:
https://www.racefans.net/2019/04/13/bottas-stays-ahead-as-albon-crash-ends-session/
And don’t forget to enter your predictions before qualifying begins:
https://www.racefans.net/2019/04/12/make-your-2019-chinese-grand-prix-predictions/
My pole time and pole position-predictions: 1:30.900 and Leclerc.
Hello everyone and welcome back to RaceFans Live for the third qualifying session of 2019. Who’s going to take pole position for this one?
Williams looked a lot closer to the rest of the pack in final practice – let’s see if that’s borne out in qualifying.
Albon’s crash made a mess of his car and the end of practice. Several drivers had to abort runs. More than half the field didn’t improve on their lap times from Friday:
Max Verstappen
Carlos Sainz Jnr
Lando Norris
Daniel Ricciardo
Pierre Gasly
Daniil Kvyat
Lance Stroll
Sergio Perez
Kevin Magnussen
Romain Grosjean
Robert Kubica
Any word on the condition of Albon’s car?
Too much damage to fix in time for qualifying, meaning that he won’t take part in the session.
Exciting news for Williams!
So Albon will be one of the first five drivers out in Q1:
https://www.racefans.net/2019/04/13/albon-to-miss-qualifying-after-practice-crash/
Who will the other four be? We can probably take it for granted it will include the two Williams drivers, despite their improved showing in final practice.
Not a good first lap for Kubica even by Williams’s standards. “I have massive oversteer. I have no idea what’s going on. Unbelievable how much oversteer.”
Russell: “Struggling a bit with the rear, especially low-speed.”
Leclerc: “It’s a joke about traffic.”
It didn’t look too bad to me.
He’ll have lost a lot at turn 14.
To Bottas: “That time is safe so box, box. P1.”
Leclerc has to go out again as well as Gasly.
Kubica: “I still struggled with the rear on exit.”
So, will Red Bull get it wrong with Gasly yet again (not seeing him go out, yet?)
ah, he’s out and save – seems the track might be a bit slower at the moment, only a few improvements (well, Leclerc this time doing a real lap, and sainz too).
Wow Giovinazzi really has no luck in China.
… and my F1tv cuts out. wut.
Limping horses at it again.
Stroll out in Q1 for the third time in as many races.
Williams 17th and 18th, already feels like their best grid positions of the season.
Odd to see Ricciardo overtaking Leclerc in the pits on the way out.
A bit like Vettel Vs. Hamilton back in 2010.
Only time he can probably do it in that car, though.
Gasly way behind Max on softer tyres.
Leclerc asks for details on his sector times: “First and second sector are OK. And same last sector as Sebastian. At the moment you are P3 with medium. Sebastian did 32.23, you did 32.32.”
Gasly on softs behind Verstappen on mediums. Not good.
Raikkonen: “We lost power in the straight, more than a tenth.”
Finally about time Gasly got into the final phase of qualifying.
Hopefully Leclerc can show us that ferrari is the fastest car.
This blabla from Mercedes about Ferrari is getting really annoying if they blow them away in qualy ones again
LOL, indeed
Well, to all those who moaned at Toto Wolff and others at Mercedes for being morose about their chances with that pace of the Ferrari, guess you had a point. Positively speaking: it worked for the Mercs. in getting them out ahead of Ferrari, it seems they somehow found half a second :-p
The Honda RBR marriage seems to really be working.
The Gasly RBR one, not so much.
Well, gasly p6, but .8s behind Verstappen still.
He’s leading Formula 1.5 :(
Same picture as Australia. Bottas back on form, and Vettel ahead of Leclerc for a tenth.
Lets see if Bottas keep his advantage on last lap of Q3.
Big snap of oversteer for Hamilton at turn 13 on his out-lap, nearly lost it.
No 2nd run for Max. That’s a mistake
2nd row was possible
Gasly was 8 tenths behind Max. He needs to get better if it is for him to retain that place.
How on Earth both RBR and Haas managed to get their calculations wrong? Both sent their drivers out too late to reach the S/F line before the chequered flag. Incompetence at its best.
Vettel overtook max in the last corner
Still, they should’ve sent their drivers out earlier just in case.
Agree
It looked to me like Mercedes was holding up everyone. You saw all these cars driving really close behind it
Well Hamilton had an extremely slow out lap holding everyone up
And that’s exactly something the teams should always take into account as a possibility when calculating the remaining time in a qualifying segment, and both RBR and Haas failed at that.
But, that’s not new is it, they’ve regularly been doing that for a couple of years at Mercedes – so, better not cut it too close then and go before them, and have slightly less track evolution, but certainly opportunity to actually do a lap …
So pole for the 1,000th race goes to Valtteri Bottas! Here’s the session report:
https://www.racefans.net/2019/04/13/bottas-denies-hamilton-pole-for-1000th-championship-round/
My top-5 predictions: 1. Leclerc, 2. Vettel, 3. Hamilton, 4. Bottas, 5. Verstappen.
Hello everyone and welcome to RaceFans Live for the 1,000th round of the world championship, the 2019 Chinese Grand Prix from Shanghai.
We’ll have 19 of the 20 drivers on the grid for today’s race. Toro Rosso had to change the survival cell on Alexander Albon’s car after his huge crash yesterday, so he’ll be starting from the pits. He also has a new power unit and gearbox.
Let’s hope both Renault cars finish.
Let’s hope the Finn wins!
Williams not on the last row!
Could be their best grid positions of the year, this.
They’ve been slower at every race so far this year:
Australia: 0.13s slower
Bahrain: 0.345s slower
China: 1.191s slower
Ouch, they seem to be waaay off in China. Are they losing time on the straights due to drag, or corners? :(
Hoping Verstappen keeps a cool head and doesn’t cause a first lap demolition derby!
Temptetation to surrender to red mist is too high in RBR academy drivers. Its futile to resist.
Best of luck to Riccardo
Weather update? Any chance of rain?
Not that I’ve seen.
Hamilton: “Feels quite warm.”
“Yeah track temperature is 27C.”
Bonnington: “Any thoughts on the front wing?”
Hamilton: “As opposed to where?”
Bonnington: “Do you want to go down the full one or just half and use the diff for the rest?
Hamilton: “Again temperature-wise?”
Bonnington: “27C, that’s five cooler than what we had in FP2 long run, but FP2 long run was cooling, it got down to about a two degree delta.”
Hamilton: “I think maybe half a hole, yep.”
Max and Russel spun on formation lap haha
Kubica actually
Too many cars spinning on warm up lap.
That is Sebs job guys! ;P
Well, those spins, guess the first laps might be interesting on those mediums then!
Enjoy the 1,000th championship race guys! Here we go…
Kvyat hits both maclarens.
Torpedo!
Ricciardo for the win
Torpedo kills both macas
Disastrous first lap for McLaren. Sainz 35s behind the Williams drivers. Wonder how long he’ll take to pass them…
Kevin going backwatds
Vettel needs to pass Leclerc, I think he is faster at this point.
So far this year pole sitter has lost places at start
“Can you go faster?”
Vettel: “I can.”
Leclerc locked his brakes at the end of the straight. He is definitely costing time to Vettel.
Kvyat with a drive thru. Really?
Stewards are Mclaren fans?
Kvyat destroyed the race of team. It has never happened for a driver to hit both cars of a team at the same time. If you cant turn them go slower or go last. It was his mistake. Because the stewards are not mclaren fans, he is only getting a drive thru.
A tad harsh, yeah? I thought racing incident, might have gone with +5 sec penalty.
I’m under the impression that “causing a collision” would imply that the offending driver could have done something to prevent it. I don’t think thats the case here.
Agreed, that’s why I was leaning towards racing incident.
“Update on front wing.”
Leclerc: “A step more.”
“Copy.”
“Can you go faster?”
Leclerc: “Yes.”
“We need to push, push now.”
To Leclerc: “You need to go faster otherwise we will let Sebastian past.”
BTW, where’s this formidable pace of the Ferrari?
I’ll have to look at that again but it seems to me Ferrari gave Leclerc very little time to respond to the instruction to improve his pace.
Raikkonen is having fun today I think.
Good move by Ferrari, don’t like team orders but I think Vettel has the pace.
Classic Ferrari team order
Leclerc is a fighter not a wingman :)
Let’s see if Seb can close the gap. If he can’t it could get interesting
And Vettel locked up right away…
and go go Kimi into 9th :)
Need the fastest Ferrari chasing down Lewis!
Exactly. They need to swap them back…
Leclerc: “Now what? Anyway…”
“We do our job, stay focused.”
Interesting to hear a petulant Leclerc.
He might be petulant but he’s right
He can taste another podium the lad can and he wants it.
I am at risk of becoming a Fan of this guy.
Yeah, Vettel does seem to be a tad better, but not very impressively running away from Leclerc – suppose with those lockups he’s happy he can go first for the pitstop!
I think Ferrari have blown this call. Vettel looks no faster. And Mercedes are driving away from them.
Well, at least Brundle didn’t call it any better ;)
Strike 2 Seb
Vettel making mistakes… Leclerc should passa him
i think leclerc will overtake vettel at this rate
Limping horses are overglorified midfield team with overglorified world champion being backed. Silvers arrows have opened up the gap and verstappen is catching up.
Leclerc tells Ferrari he’s losing time.
“Copy, understood, we are discussing that.”
Verstappen: copy pit, copy, lets shake it up a bit :)
Seb is really going nowhere ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Vettel has not been pulling away and they are at risk of losing a place to Verstappen..
God, I’m LOVING Leclerc!
So, Verstappen getting ready to take back those places he thought he should have gotten yesterday after the pitstops?
Max is managing his tyres from the start. Lets see what happens
Good to see him driving so calmly this season from the start :)
Having told Leclerc to let Vettel by, Ferrari are now telling Vettel to speed up.
I can’t imagine this is going down well in Italy.
vettel either speed up or pit no other choice
Just let them race. My goodness!
Leclerc: “I’m still losing to him.”
“Copy, understood.”
Will Ferrari be quicker on secong set of tyres?
Maybe Leclerc should take an early change?
Hulk out :(
Leclerc: “My tyres are overheating like hell.”
“You need to stay ahead of Verstappen, Verstappen behind 1.7.”
“Verstappen just pitted now.”
Now Verstappen is close, Ferrari will have to pit Leclerc first.
Mag passed Hul
now it will be interesting, ver listened :)
Ferrari may well have just lost Leclerc a place to Verstappen.
Even spin cycle is not safe from angry Verstappen.
Ver may stir things up since he wont be a gentleman anymore :)
To Leclerc: “We are plan C.”
No option but to go long with Leclerc now? The Kimi treatment?
Nice and steady does it Max. Keep getting podiums like this is better than crashing out.
Beautiful by Vettel and Max!
To Leclerc: “We go as long as possible thinking about the end of the race but we keep pushing.”
Yup. Plan K
now it ll be interesting non-gentlemen fight!
Naughty Vettel?
Verstappen is on a hunt now – will be a good duel.
+1
And Leclerc will be hoping it means Vettel holds up Verstappen, and he can go long enough that he can be ahead at the end using a soft.
Leclerc been sacrificed for some reason?
They sort of had to put him on a different strategy, which might – might not – work
Other kissing rearside of overglorified world champion no other reason to sacrifice Leclrec today.
That looked to be Max’s best opportunity
leclerc got a free pitstop
Guess the tyres made that Leclerc pitstop mandatory then.
Gasly gets past by Kimi while his teammate fighting limping horses.
Gasly is doing better this race but still not exactly impressive is he :(
Wish they would pit Raikkonen.
Come on Valtteri get in that DRS and make a race of it
doubt they ll let him by… the way they allowed him to keep ahead of the reds
Can Riccardo get a troublefree pit stop and race, or is his Renault doomed?
Fingers crossed
It didn’t die in the same corner as Hulkenbergs, so no worries:-)
Albon is doing a good job of apologising for his mess up yesterday.
Agreed!
i wonder what will mercedes do to catch up ferraris this season!
They just can’t match Ferraris top end with these long straights :)
Help – kind of missed why Hulk retired? :(
Don’t know – just heard them say retire over the radio :(
kvyat crashed him and norris, both mcl had damages!
French engine:-)
I am loving Kimi out of Ferrari, it’s reawakened his spirit.
He is free to be himself now – he knows he wont be told to hold position etc – loving it :)
To Leclerc: “We are thinking about Plan B.” It was Plan C a few laps ago…
Alphabet soup.
A: Mediums, Hards
B: Mediums, Hards, Softs
C: Mediums, Sifts
Guessing he couldn’t run long enough for C, so reverted to A. Hards aren’t lasting so everyone looking at B?
Very respectful and clean racing between Kimi and Romain.
Vettel and Leclerc have the exact same lap times for like 20 laps now.
I wont be surprised if the Italian press butchers their national team and their golden boy tomorrow.
Guess it depends on whether Leclerc just has an eventful race, or an ‘interesting time but with missed changes’.
Quite likely – they are very passionate and this is not impressive from Ferrari
Here’s why the stewards gave Kvyat a drive-through:
https://www.racefans.net/2019/04/14/kvyat-wholly-to-blame-for-first-lap-collision-with-mclarens/
Verstappen has been losing pace lately..
Hass pace gone.
Albon doing a great race
Album’s colleague doing the opposite!
Curse auto-correct!
“Albon”
But that’s a fun nickname!
Vettel has taken a second out of Bottas. Could he reach him before the end?
hope no safety car comes to change anything else… if it does, it ll be shame
Max coming in.
Vettel pits at the end of the lap.
Ferrari pit Vettel so they can give Leclerc another chance to practice letting him through.
Lol *facepalm*
So Ferrari are racing Red Bull these days …. oh dear :/
Man, Crofty finally made me laugh – poking fun at Gasly being so behind Max that when Max pitted he came out just ahead of Gasly.
I giggled too
Now they should keep leclerc out to the end!
The full Kimi
Lewis pits as well.
Double pitting for the Mercedes
Showing off.
Merc pit crew also decide to get in on the fun rubbing it in Ferrari’s face.
I wonder if it it is the 1.5 psi on the rear rights making the difference?
For Ferrari being nowhere? Good point, and a fun conspiracy theory to keep all occupied :)
wow, nail bitings
It’s going to be a test of Leclerc’s obedience when Vettel cruises up behind him with Verstappen bearing down on both of them…
multi 21 would be fun in the mix
Multi 21 will probably not be necessary in RBR this season:-)
Wow. Well done Mercedes..
Nice Leclerc!
Agreed, very impressive.
Can Leclerc stay out till the end?
Mercedes not going to miss out on fastest lap point THIS race !!
Ferrari have told Leclerc Vettel is catching him on fresher tyres but haven’t indicated any team orders. Leclerc responds asking for lap times.
There you go! Vettel is through
Strange strategies from Ferrari again it seems to me.
They used Leclerc. Simple as that. And in reality they had no chance against the Mercs. So they should let them race.
What’s the point of the strategy Ferrari put Leclerc on???
How is it possible that when Ferrari gets little pressure during the race they ruins the race of one of their drivers. They should be now 3 and 4.
fingers crossed haas wont cause any sc to stir everything up
Maybe Antonio-Joe will bin it at the hump again
Don’t get why they didn’t put soft on Leclerc
He only had a used set but new mediums
Come onnnnn Safety Car
I don’t really think Vettel catching Bottas is quite the real picture, expect Bottas is just pacing himself, but, we’ll see when it gets to ~2s.
what? kimi has eye brows on his car!
Get him Kimi!
ham lost half a sec this lap, wonder lappers? or he is pacing himself for FLAP?
cheeky ham radio, asking if he should slow down for the pack to catch up :)
Like 5 Live just said, he is probably bored ;)
yeah wondering if he is gonna ask about alonso’s lap times in the indys
cheeky ham radio again… next one will be whats the weather like in the caribbeans?
This is a pretty boring race
It has gotten a bit slow… 12:30 am and I’m about to doze off
Not one of the best for sure.
flap will be hard for ham in the pack that close!
The ferraris are so fast this race they are not even on the same straights as Mercedes..
Toto and Lewis will need newer excuses after this race.
Gasly free to pit for FLap why not give it a go
So is LEC
Grosjean slowing down
norris has some catching up to do with kvyat
Ouch Bottas overlapping Kimi
Ricciardo best of the rest is nice.
Glad his car didn’t blow up
They would be ironic if Gasly gets fastest lap
front runners’ flap chance… the gap
Old set of softs for Gasly, will they be quick enough for fastest lap? They do degrade very quickly.
He gets it!
No I don’t think so
Delighted Albon got the last point!
could ham flap?
Z1000
gasly flap!
Interesting tactics from Ferrari.
one wonders when will mercedes catch up to speed?
Best comment of the race LOL.
lol, “miracles do happen, mate”
Thanks for joining in guys – lots more Chinese GP coverage coming up, here’s some to get you started:
Rate the Race: https://www.racefans.net/2019/04/14/rate-the-race-2019-chinese-grand-prix/
Points tables and graph: https://www.racefans.net/2019/04/14/2019-chinese-grand-prix-championship-points/
Pictures: https://www.racefans.net/2019/04/14/2019-chinese-grand-prix-in-pictures/
Not a great race but made better by having this chat running – thanks all ;)
I can’t imagine Leclerc is going to be happy with his team after that debacle
Yeah, they lost that place when Vettel, once let past, couldn’t keep up with the Mercedes’ and started making mistakes.
so it wasnt just ham interested with leclerc’s result