Is stability a sign of skill or luck? Lewis Hamilton was first again in the fourth Grand Prix of the 2014 Formula 1 season. Daniil Kvyat scored points and took 10th position. However, miracles still do happen to the ‘Queen of Motorsports’. This time the chequered flag was waved too early. Why did it happen? The race was too stressful or was it just a sudden hand move? We will figure it out…
Debates are still going on about the new Formula 1 technical regulations. Just a few days before the racing weekend in China Giovanni Malagò, the head of the Italian Olympic Committee, added his comment on the oddity of the current situation: “I speak on behalf of Italian sports people and fans, I don’t like this Formula 1 and in my opinion it’s delivered a product that has absolutely no sense. In my opinion, it’s a form of self-harm”. Meanwhile, veterans of the race have recently started defending the new Formula 1. Four-time champion Alain Prost made a strong statement: “"I'm really negative about the comments that have been made about Formula 1 in the last few weeks, because I don't think it's very fair. When you are involved in F1, you should not make such negative comments. I can't understand, because everybody should be going in the same direction. Teams appear to have difficulties to find sponsors, and that's not because of these new regulations”.
What can be said here? The current conditions are not the best but drivers should be busy demonstrating good results. There will be a three-week break after the Chinese Grand Prix so they had to pull themselves together for this race. The distance of one lap of the track at the Shanghai International Circuit is 5,451 m. The track layout was inspired from the Chinese character ‘shang’ that should remind the pilots not to stand gaping about but actually ‘race in Shanghai’ (as suggested by the translation of this symbol).
According to f1news.ru, Paddy Lowe, Mercedes’ technical chief, gives the following comment on this track: “It's a challenging circuit from both a driver's perspective and on the technical side. The layout itself is different to that of the previous three venues this season, with more duty put through the front tyres. Strong engine performance is essential for the long straight but equally there are some tight corners requiring good traction”.
The heat of Bahrain changed to the chill of China. Five drivers acquired new gearboxes — Jenson Button (McLaren), Kevin Magnussen (McLaren), Adrian Sutil (Sauber), Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber), and Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso). By the way, none of them was able to get to the finish line at the previous Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Pastor Maldonado (Williams), a proper family man who is not averse to hoist the cars of his rivals into the air, did not take part in qualifying. No, he was not suspended. It was the finger of fate, which pointed at him during the free practice sessions, when the team found an oil leak on his car and did not have enough time to fix it before qualifying.
In its turn, qualifying was held on a damp track. The visibility was poor, that is why the race cars were moving in one severe Formula traffic jam. Best result was demonstrated by Lewis Hamilton — 1:53.860, while Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) claimed 13th position. Generally, it went without any big incidents.
At the traditional press conference after the qualifying session, Lewis was joking about his colleagues: “I was told it is going to be a good day tomorrow — I don’t know if it’s going to be the same for you guys? So, we don’t know. Here it’s always hazy, you don’t really know what’s going to happen with the weather but it will be cold for sure. Hopefully, we’ll have a good race either way”. These peppered words were pointed at the Red Bull Racing pilots Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel who were second and third on the starting grid. Pastor Maldonado has been nevertheless given permission by the stewards to start the race from last position.
Ready, steady, go! Hamilton kept the lead, Massa (Williams) and Alonso (Ferrari), Bottas (Williams) and Rosberg (Mercedes) had contact and the overtaking began. Dissatisfaction with tyres was heard on the radio. On lap 19 Kvyat passed Button (McLaren) for 11th place: “I had a good start and I managed to make up some positions during the first lap. Our pace was very strong today and I enjoyed the fight with Jenson pretty much throughout the race”.
There were struggles even inside the teams. For instance, when Ricciardo came close to Vettel and attacked his teammate, the engineers asked Sebastian to give way to Daniel and two laps later he actually did it, though it was obviously not an easy decision for Sebastian.
Later Grosjean went off into the gravel, came back to the track, but then had to leave his race car in the boxes.
Rosberg overtook Alonso on lap 42 for second place but he was still 15.2 seconds behind Hamilton: “It was not the best weekend for me. My telemetry wasn't working all race so the team was not getting any information about the car and didn’t know what was going on”. Meanwhile, Lewis was asked to slow down a little in order not to “offend the children too much” as he was 12 laps ahead of his competitors. Where does all this energy come from?
Then suddenly the marshal waved the flag on lap 54 instead of lap 56. The white and black chequered flag was shown to Hamilton: “I was thinking 'am I seeing things? I thought I was starting my last lap, glanced up and saw something waving and realised it was the chequered flag. I took my foot off the throttle pedal but didn’t see anyone at the pit wall, so I went on. I lost almost a second there, I asked the team but they said ‘no, no, keep going’. I have been flat out today but I knew I could win. It would have been impossible without the hard work done by the entire Mercedes AMG team, and honestly, I still can’t believe what a wonderful car we have!”
The runner-up Rosberg: “My telemetry wasn't working; I was left there all by myself. I had no communication with the team, so they had no idea what I was doing. Well, now they have something to work on! I had to count on myself only”.
Alonso was third: “I think this podium should be dedicated to Stefano, as everything we do up to July will also be the result of his efforts. We have definitely made a step forward, because compared to two weeks ago, we have partly closed the gap to the leaders, but we are well aware there’s still a long way to go”. Daniil Kvyat took 10th place: “Even though it all went very well today, I think there's still a lot more to come from the car, so I'm really looking forward to starting the European part of the season”.
That was it, now the pilots are working hard to demonstrate good results in Spain.
Photo: f1fanatic.co.uk
