F1:China - A Day to Remember for Alonso

Whassup bro's! 

This weekend's F1 certainly was an eventful race with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso eventually taking the flag after a more than comfortable final stint that again saw strategies make and break drivers' chances.

Today was also a day that saw Mark Webber's weekend go from bad to worse as, after getting disqualified from Qualifying 3, an error with the rear right wheel after his pit-stop (when asked on the radio Mark said there was something up with said wheel, psychic much?!:S) resulted in him having to peel off, just as the wheel came off, ran across the track (and some have already said what an ironic twist of fate it would have been if it had damaged Seb Vettel's car, given their history!) and fortunately out of harm's way.

Upon seeing Lewis Hamilton take pole position in qualifying I thought this was an excellent marker for Mercedes to lay down having risen to the top of the pile by only the third race. Race day however, proves to be a slightly different affair as though they do have pace, they are not quite at the stage of say Ferrari or RBR just yet in terms of consistent race speed, but they're getting there...


 I will not discredit anything that Hamilton has done, in fact will give him full credit after writing in his column for the BBC website that he did not move to Mercedes for the money (along with fascinating insight into what goes on in a driver's mind as far as the 'team orders' debate goes) as many claimed he did. What I will say is that upon hearing that it looks as though Lewis is the number one driver at the moment, must come as a bit of a snub to Nico Rosberg having been partner to Michael Schumacher under similar circumstances last year (though the overall results may suggest that not to be the case).

I think this has been a great marker thrown down to the others to say that they're improving and gradually closing the gap on the top tier of teams from their current and hopefully soon-to-be-former position as a midfield team. Just looking at Lewis Hamilton's efforts over the last three races proves that the processes Mercedes have in place, and pushing him further towards the sharp end of the grid hopefully on a regular basis.

Who's my driver of the day?

Daniel Ricciardo

I was going to pick Fernando Alonso for his ruthless passing manoeuvres in getting to the front of the grid (even at hairpins where he charged on past a couple of places as though saying "I'm coming through whether you have it or not, bro's!").

After qualifying an excellent seventh place and finishing in the same position despite all the swapping and changing as the teams came and went for their pit-stops. This is his best position since starting his career with RBR's sister (and feeder) team Toro Rosso so special kudos goes to him for a fantastic result and hopefully more like it are to come!

Unfortunate Decisions

At this point I'm going to say how disappointed I am for Mark Webber to be handed a 3 place grid penalty for 'causing a collision' with Jean-Eric Vergne.

Why?

Looking at it from Mark's perspective, yes he did come from a long way back but Vergne to me made it look as though he was keeping the door wide open so that they could compete for the place around the hairpin. To then go and take the apex back again halfway through is, though understandable, unfortunate because surely he knew Mark was there even before his wheels were alongside his.

To those who'd condemn the action from Mark saying that 'ah but his wheels weren't far enough alongside to warrant being in that kind of position', I ask you to look at the incident as a whole, and how Vergne left the door so wide open to begin with it was only natural for Mark to attempt to try and nail the pass on the cutback.

A racing incident this surely was, though the stewards clearly did not agree and from Mark's own perspective, he said that "one view looks like Jean-Eric is giving me the line and the other view looks more on me". So I can understand why he would feel totally aggrieved and why this caps off 'the worst weekend' for him... but he'll bounce back, I'm sure of it!

Final mention goes to Jenson Button who capped off a rather disappointing qualifying to finish an impressive fifth position behind Seb Vettel and to hear him say that he couldn't race people as he had to think of the longer term picture in terms of the race must've been a tremendous blow, but that's what it's all about sometimes; making sure you come home exactly where you are rather than at the front of the grid.

Next time out it's Bahrain in a week's time so we'll see, now that Seb Vettel's lead has been cut to a mere three points from the Iceman Kimi Raikonnen (who also raced impressively today to bring it home second!), what happens when they reconvene on the tarmac for a fourth time.

Peace out!


The Lanky Penguin