If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver

 19.7.21

A quote from perhaps the greatest of them all, the idol of Lewis Hamilton, Ayrton Senna. Was Lewis channelling that mantra as he arrived at Copse on lap 1?

Ok, as my former blogging colleague, and co-founder of this very blog, pointed out, that quote was from 30 years ago, of a different time in F1, where Senna perhaps got away with things here and there. These days F1 is very risk averse in comparison, hence penalties are dished out for all sorts.

I’ve been texting my F1 mates a lot about this and overall, opinion seems fairly divided. Channel 4 pundits DC and Mark Webber said Lewis shouldn’t have left his wheel in there and that he got off fairly lightly on the penalty. Though I have since seen that LeClerc and Alonso both labelled it a racing incident. Norris seemed less inclined to give his opinion. Fans of both drivers will no doubt back each of their guys.

I have no doubt Horner and Wolff, if their positions were swapped, would be saying the exact things the other is saying right now (and directly after the race).

And let us be honest, do we really think Max would have done any different if he were in Lewis’ position?

 

Racing incident 

I am calling the Lewis vs Max crash at Silverstone a racing incident. Both guys were super aggressive and neither wanted to back off. When that happens, inevitably there is a crash. Perhaps there was 5% more blame on Lewis, because he wasn’t on the usual line for Copse, and Max was.

Though Max knew Lewis was there and was probably expecting him to back off. But unlike the other couple of near moments they have had in races this year, where Lewis had to back off to avoid an accident against the always aggressive Max, this time he didn’t.

Maybe that did come from a moment of desperation. Perhaps he had to overtake Max on lap 1 and make it stick, otherwise Max would have pulled away and disappeared into the distance. 33 points in the title race is a fair way off.

But, Lewis was alongside far enough to be entitled to think it was his corner. Contradicting myself here, but on the flipside he was on a very tight angle and understeering. See, even as I write this I can’t decide entirely where blame should lie.

Andrew Benson, the F1 analyst at BBC, makes some good points in his article. That Lewis has not really had any big title pressure in the last couple of years. 2017 and 18 early on there was a nibble from Vettel, which faded over the course of the seasons. You need to go back to 2016 for when the pressure was last turned up to 10. And Lewis did make a couple of mistakes back then, the big one in Barcelona of course (when Rosberg was ahead and perfectly entitled to slam the door shut on Lewis, causing Lewis to brake and spin onto the grass and clatter into Nico). Nico did not back off at all in 2016 in these sorts of situations, where he perhaps had done previously.

 

24.7.21

Ok, I needed to step away for a few days to clear my head on this one. Red Bull have since announced that the crash could cost them up to £1.3m! Ouch!

It is clear that emotions were very high in the aftermath, from all sides. Christian Horner has mellowed a little since then perhaps. I don’t really agree with Max tweeting from hospital saying he found Lewis celebrating to be disrespectful. They crashed, Lewis was told Max was out of the car and essentially ok. I think, if anything, the fact Lewis still won with that penalty just shows how far ahead Mercedes and Red Bull are of the rest.

 

Drivers of the weekend?

As good as Hamilton’s win was, I can’t give him driver of the weekend when he has been involved in punting his rival into the kitty litter.

You’d have to go some way to beat LeClerc on this for me. That Ferrari had no right being in first place for most of the grand prix. But he showed yet again just what a supreme talent he truly is. And let us not forget that Hamilton was helped out by Ferrari car gremlins as he caught and passed LeClerc.

 

Let us also consider the quite mighty weekend from none other than Fernando Alonso. His sprint race start was utterly electric, going from 11^th to 5^th! Ok he had soft tyres, but his starts have always been mighty, and he found a way around the outside of a couple of cars at least. Then he spent the second half of the sprint race in 7^th fending off a queue of faster cars behind him. As like the Ferrari of LeClerc in the main race, that Alpine had no real business being that high up the order. He spent the grand prix in 7^th, fending off cars behind him too. A true fighting drive.

 

Driver of the year so far

Is unquestionably Lando Norris. Next!

 

Sprint race yey or ney?

I think from a spectator point of view, having qualifying on Friday in place of practice sessions worked well. Let’s face it, most practice sessions are boring to watch.

Then having a mini race on Saturday was diverting enough for a few laps, then it all settled and got very boring very quickly. As most people have remarked, it was saved by Alonso seemingly being in a rocket ship.

I am undecided really. I think the sprint race needs some tweaking if it is to be a permanent fixture, but I hope it really just fades away as for an OCD chap like myself it messes with records a bit. They did a usual qualifying session on Friday and it wasn’t pole position, it was “speed king”. Huh?

 

The championship year ahead

The crash was perhaps inevitable, the way the two protagonists race. And there will be a couple more before the end of the year. The gloves are well and truly off now and we’ll all be watching to see how it pans out in Hungary. For the neutral, this is utterly fantastic.

 

 

 

 

 

Round 1: Bahrain race review

Phew. F1 is back with a bang. And luckily for us fans, it seems we have a genuine two team fight for the title.

I was wrong. All those years of Mercedes arriving into the first round and unleashing their full qualifying potential have left me somewhat cynical it seems. Max was 4 tenths ahead of Lewis for pole and provided the 7 team world champion with a stern test through the race, albeit racing apart for most of it. It was a game of cat and mouse, of strategy, that ultimately led to a showdown on track for the last handful of laps. And we were not left disappointed as the 2 drivers went at it hammer and tongs to win the season opener. Max hunting down Lewis when Lewis was on tyres that were 11 laps older, so he had to defend with all his racing acumen, and then some! Max ultimately overtook Lewis off the track at turn 4 and had to hand back the lead immediately, through fear of race control punishment (the turn 4 off track rules seemed confusing during the race and at the end to be honest!). 

It was a grandstand finish from two drivers at the very top. Let us hope Red Bull are competitive at all tracks this year, and don't drop away on other tracks like they did at times last year. Game on!

This. This is what I wanted all along. Racing, fighting for the win!

Elsewhere there was plenty to see. Norris made a blinding start and was soon in 4th. Perez's Red Bull turned itself off on the parade lap and he had to start from the pitlane - he finished an excellent 5th!

Fernando Alonso didn't drive like someone who has been away from F1 for 2 years. He made an excellent start, taking Sainz immediately and tracking the McLarens until falling away a bit. He also had a doozy of a battle a bit later with Vettel and Sainz. A shame he had to retire really, as no doubt he would have got some good points for Alpine.

Both McLaren's looked pretty nippy early on and Ricciardo finished a solid 7th in a car he is no doubt still getting used to. Ferrari looked solid enough too, finishing 6th and 8th. A good start compared to the utterly disaster strewn year of 2020! Read the full race report from BBC here now.

Of course, plenty of people will look at the benefits of the new aero regulations for some teams versus others. Ehm. Still. They are all in the same boat and have to adapt to the rules as best they can. But this is an interesting little graphic about how much time each team has lost in Bahrain 2021 qualifying versus the same race last year.  

There was proper racing throughout the field, throughout the race. Brilliant.

Also, I can't be the only one who mistaken the Aston Martin's for the Mercedes on around 3 different occasions?! Under the lights the paint jobs look rather similar! 

Round 2 - let's go! :-)

Australia qualifying report

Justin:

Well, ultimately, there were no great surprises. Lewis out ahead flanked by a Ferrari. That was an astonishing lap by Lewis and a huge gap to Kimi.

It caused a bit of a fruity press conference afterwards - Gotta love these two exchanging words.

Bottas has his work cut out after hitting the wall quite heavily. Still, with the speed on the Mercedes you'd expect him to rise through to the top 5 with relative ease.

The Renault team look strong, as do Haas (they have apparently remained within the rules whilst actually building very little of their car compared to other teams) - the latter are surely the most improved/ big surprise of 2018 so far?!

Fernando Alonso said during the build up that this would be the worst weekend for McLaren. He'd better hope so. I'd imagine they didn't have qualifying 11th and 12th in mind before Q3. That said, Alonso seemed ok with it.

There is a big gap between the top 3 teams and the best of the rest. There was one second from Daniel Ricciardo back to Kevin Magnussen. Not sure if I'm more concerned by that gap or the one between Lewis and the rest.

That said, the flip side is the top 3 were all mega close after Q2...but Lewis was holding back until obliterating everyone in Q3.

Unless Ferrari and Red Bull pull something very special out of the bag tomorrow (today now if anyone down under reads this), I don't think anyone other than Lewis will win this race.

It's great that F1 is back, but I hope we have fighting at the front tomorrow and don't just have to rely on midfield for close up racing.

We shall see.

Round 6: Monaco, plus Round 7 Preview

Justin:

Headline. Ricciardo fails to smile after race.

You can't blame him at all. Red Bull fucked up big time and cost him what was looking like his first win at Monaco.


He said he didn't like being the miserable guy in interviews, but he just wanted to get out of there and skip the team de-brief. He just didn't want to hear what they had to say. I read somewhere that he told them on the radio not to say anything, as nothing they had to say would help. Crikey.

Driver of the day

Goes to either one of the first three frankly. Hamilton was on fire, plain and simple.

After being released by Rosberg, Lewis dropped him like a dead weight and began reeling in Ricciardo bit by bit. Hamilton was at one with his machine and the elements. The cream rises to the top in the wet at Monaco. Case in point, Perez storming to third. Fantastic.

What of Rosberg? He clearly had a bad day at the office. He was due one. He struggled with break temperatures, tyre temperatures...you name it. He also said he just didn't have confidence in the car to push hard, otherwise he would have been in the barriers.

It's not like he is shit around here, having won the last three Monaco races. However, in one swoop Hamilton has nearly halved his deficit in the points standings.

Fifty and still going

Well done McLaren. Alonso and Button and both got points finishes. Alonso probably quite enjoyed keeping Rosberg behind him in the closing stages.



News (9 June)

The driver merry-go-round has started for 2017, or as we all call it, silly season.

The facts are this:

1. Nico Rosberg and Kimi are the only guys out of contract for 2017 at one of the top 3 teams (Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari). I'm calling Red Bull the second fastest now, as frankly they are on top of Ferrari right now.

2. Rosberg is highly likely to sign again for Mercedes. He has said as much, and Mercedes have said they wish to keep him. Why would he leave? Nowhere else would give him a car as dominating as the Merc. There was a brief rumour that Ferrari were sniffing around him, to replace Kimi. I really don't see that happening. It does make more sense for Ferrari than Nico though.

3. Kimi holds the key to the top line driver market. He wants to stay, Ferrari feel his relationship with Vettel works well. So, signing him for 2017 should be going ahead right? We'll see. He is still quick that is for sure.

4. There are a whole host of potentially better drivers wanting that Ferrari seat. Perez has done his top team hopes no harm at all recently. The 2013 McLaren was a bag of shit and I feel that perhaps a top drive came at the wrong time for him - He was on the way up, McLaren were well on their way down! Nico Hulkenberg, Romain Grosjean and Valtteri Bottas are all waiting for that top drive.

Though, Kimi is ahead of Vettel in the standings right now.

5. Ferrari need to decide - Do they maintain the status quo for the sake of the team, or do they draft in a hungry, younger racer to come and shake things up? Who knows?

6. Button is out of contract at McLaren. What he does not deserve at all is being treated like shit yet again in a "will they, won't they?" sign him for another year...

He is a champion and deserves only the best treatment frankly.

Rumour is that Williams will let Massa go and draft in Button when Vandoorne takes his seat.

7. Will Kvyat be at Torro Rosso in 2017? He has been slagging Red Bull off here and there non-stop since being sacked by the big team. We shall see.


Round 7: Canada predictions 

Monaco was the place where a powerful engine matters least.

I cannot see Red Bull ruffling the feathers of Mercedes as much in Canada.

Hamilton knows how to win there, that is for sure.

You heard it here first! Top two will be Mercedes (I cannot predict which way around), then Ricciardo in third.

Round 5: Spain

Justin:

Erm, wow. What an absolutely stonking race. Now, THAT's why I love F1.

Aggression Vs Defence = Crash, Bang, Wallop
Hamilton made a good start, getting the better of Rosberg, but then Nico caught a good tow and went around the outside at turn 1. A ballsy move, proving that he was ready to fight with Lewis in a one on one race. Then coming out of turn 3, Nico was a lot slower (which we later found was an engine mode issue...though I inferred at one point that it was a battery thing from Wolff's interview...anyway).

At first, after I'd finished jumping up and down and screaming at the TV, I thought it was possibly more Lewis at fault...or did I think anyone was really at fault? It looked to me like the overspeed had caught Lewis out a bit (though later he said he knew Nico had engine mode problems and that he had to go for the gap).

So, Lewis went aggressive and wanted to take advantage and pass there and then, Nico went defensive. Bang.

Nico was entitled to shut the door, in my opinion. Lewis is a racer and was going for a gap, but it was very much from the Senna school of "I'm coming through, don't you dare turn in, if you do, we crash!".

File under racing incident. The stewards and indeed Mercedes said no guy was 100% to blame. Judge for yourselves.

Of the two drivers, Rosberg looked slightly more annoyed in the post race interviews - See here a link to Channel 4 F1.

Hamilton seemed rather at peace with it all. I should point out that neither tripped up over the tricky interview questions. "Are you saying you weren't to blame?"......Nico replied "I didn't say that". Plus he said what was talked about in the de-brief stays private.

Lewis too was pretty fair and even handed in his answers.

Monaco next. That will lessen the tension for sure...

The race they left behind
It was an awesome race. 4 cars in with a shout of winning, near the end too, is somewhat of a rare sight in F1 these days.

I'm getting a bit annoyed with Vettel having a good old heat of the moment whinge when someone does something he doesn't like, such as try and overtake him - gasp! Then afterwards he admitted he said stuff in the heat of the moment when Ricciardo tried a bold pass into turn 1.

I think Ricciardo is completely correct to ask Red Bull why he was pulled in and changed to the slower three stop strategy, which seemingly released Max to victory on the two stop.

Congratulations to Max Verstappen though. He drove an absolutely flawless race and really has to be my driver of the day doesn't he?

We should spare a thought for Daniil Kvyat. I can't find the Channel 4 interview with him after the race, but boy did he look peeved.

Channel 4 coverage 
I was tweeting before the race started and noticed a few ney sayers regarding Steve Jones.

I like him as an F1 presenter. He works well with DC. And Susie and Alain were awesome today also.

People have short memories. It took Suzi Perry a while to hit her stride and she made a few errors in her first year. That's the nature of live TV.

I liked the Channel 4 nod to the fact that some people on the internet didn't like Jones much, when he was told by Susie to be a travel agent instead of an F1 presenter on their car journey to the track.

Steve is enthusiastic and happy to be there. To be fair, if I was presenting, it's probably not far off how I'd be. He's a bit of a fanboy. Anyone notice him touching Prost a lot during qualifying? Heehee.

Kudos to them bringing in Prost. That man is a legend. They also had to nearly cut him off from talking too long a few times. Hehehe.

The way they present too, is working well. Chopping and changing from one presenter to another, in a different part of the paddock. True, the BBC coverage did some of this, but C4 do it on another level.

To Monaco we go!!! The Mercedes boys will be trying to not touch each other at all.

PS - worth noting that Andrew Benson tweeted after qualifying that Alonso was right to leave his contract early, based on the fact he wouldnt have won any titles if he'd have seen it to the end of 2016. Bang on frankly. Ferrari were over a second behind the Mercedes duo.

2014 preview

Justin:

Just 71 days, 9 hours and 11 minutes until P1 in Australia.

Of course before this preview gets going, I should mention Michael Shumacher. As many people have pointed out, if anyone was in a position where fighting spirit and steel determination was needed, he'd be top of the list. Get well soon Michael.

Red Bull
With Webber having departed, Daniel Ricciardo steps into the role of Aussie Number Two. Course, Red Bull say there are no clear orders regarding number one drivers, but we all know it's Vettel's house - his 4 world titles give him this as well as protection from the RB powers that be when things go wrong - see Malaysia 2013! Ricciardo is quick. Whilst I don't think he'll beat Vettel over a season, there might be one or two times where Vettel throws his toys out of the pram when Ricciardo might trump him in qualy. Team dynamics are key and it will be interesting to see how each party reacts when this happens. I expect Vettel to be in the title hunt and RB will be up there with Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Lotus.

Mercedes
Rosberg and Hamilton were evenly matched in 2013. Lewis will have more of an input on the car this time around so expect to see a faster, more settled Lewis in 2014. Rosberg will undoubtedly raise his game to meet this challenge. If, as people predict, Mercedes build the best power train, then expect both drivers to be real title contenders. The only weaknesses with Mercedes could be tyre wear (they have had this issue since 2010/11) and the reshuffle at the top - with Brawn out they have a technical director and a commercial director. Will be interesting to see who takes blame for stuff when it goes tits up.

Ferrari
Fire and Ice. This is the team where it could all go spectacularly wrong. If they don't produce a winning car (quite likely given the shit they have churned out the last few years), then expect Alonso to wring it's neck and get more out of it than Kimi over the course of a season. Kimi was allegedly brought in to keep Alonso honest in qualy - but as Alonso pointed out, Massa was just as quick as Kimi over their years as teammates. If Ferrari give both guys a winning car - then, well, how it all plays out is anyones guess. The politics at Ferrari are huge. Kimi more or less doesnt get involved in all this so I think it will all be down to how each guy reacts when soundly beaten by the other. Then again, these two may push each other towards the constructors and drivers titles, who knows.

McLaren
This is the year that JB could be made to look a little stupid by a fast rookie. It also has the potential to be the year when JB drives a sublime car to his second world title. If the car is awesome, JB will crush Magnuessen. As a team they must bounce back after 2013 was their worst season for 30 years!

Lotus
Maldonado is still a wild, unpredictable driver. He did win a race when the Williams was good, but I don't expect much from him at Lotus. They should have gotten The Hulk. Grosjean will go onwards and upwards from 2013 and lead this team with style I believe. I wouldnt be surprised, if the car is good, to see Grosjean take his first F1 win in 2014.

Williams
Regulation changes may help them move forwards. Bottas is a very quick guy and with Massa in it for three years I expect much progress from this legendary team in 2014.

Force India
Perez and Hulk is a great combination on paper. Whilst it was the best available seat for Hulk after Lotus declined his services, I am unsure why he has signed a multiyear contract - what if a big team comes calling, which it surely will. With Perez around, I'm half expecting these two to be shunting each other off a fair bit.

Sauber
If they can produce a good car as in 2013, expect Sutil to lead them to many points finishes.

Torro Rosso
Their car was pretty useful in 2013. If they can do the same again I reckon they'll get a fair few points finishes. JEV will be looking to prove the Red Bull people wrong by hiring Ricciardo over him.

Marussia and Caterham
The regulation changes represent the best chance of jumping up the grid a bit for these two eternal backmarker teams.

I have a funny feeling that the two Mercedes drivers will be heavily involved in the drivers title race. There are bound to be others for sure - Vettel and Alonso, but Mercedes seem to be making a lot of good noises thus far and the big rumour is that their power train is pretty awesome and ahead of the game. They need to sort bloody tyre wear and sort off-track issues asap.

Murray Walker....the voice of reason amongst all this tyre bashing.

Justin:

I've had a couple of thoughts.

1. I need to blog more regularly as Spain and Monaco have now been and gone since my last blog.
2. Why do I need to record my name now my esteemed (former?) colleague now only guest blogs on the rare moment it takes his fancy?

For the record, of course he is always welcome.


Tyres...

Everyone has an opinion on whether tyre degredation has gone too far in creating a show for the fans. Former drivers, current drivers, team bosses, commentators...hell, even Bernie himself!

Bernie is on record as saying it's good bringing tyre strategy into it as it makes the drivers think about strategy for the first time in years. Fair enough.

In Monaco we had the Mercedes pair managing their pace early on, going around two seconds slower than cars further back. This was of course to help tyre management, pacing themselves for a one stop strategy. It created a snake of cars all bunched up, where of course it's tricky to pass at Monaco, and this caused plenty of racing mishaps.

Vettel was whinging big time yet again about tyres - witness him putting in the fastest lap of the race near the end, by a second and a half. His engineer told him he won't get any points for that. Vettel replied with a "no, but the satisfaction". Child. Toys. Pram.

I'm leaning towards the school of thought that says Pirelli are doing what was asked of them, to make tyres that do not last half a race distance. Tyre management has featured many times in F1 previously. Races where huge amounts of pitstops just for tyres have featured previously.

Kimi himself said that this is F1 as it stands now, so you either like it or simply stop driving.

I have stumbled across perhaps one of the most knowledgeable opinions in all of F1 whilst reading my new F1 Racing magazine this month.

Murray Walker speaks a lot of sense and reason - I highly recommend people seek it out and have a good read.

"Having tyres that 'unnecessarily' wear out is no dafter than having 'unnecessary' fuel stops, which used to happen because the rules specified fuel tank capacities insufficient for race distances." 


Spain

Great win for Alonso. Also fantastic seeing him stop to greet his fans on the drivers parade. The crowd noise was insane and reminded me of Silverstone during the Nige days.

Monaco

Utterly commanding win for Nico. Lewis has started with the excuses now Rosberg has beaten him to pole three times on the spin and generally had better races in the last couple of outings too.

He looked rather befuddled when he stated "yeah, qualifying is usually where I am really strong". Oh dear.

Surely Grosjean is on thin ice after ramming the back of some poor bugger and punting them both out.

Speaking of which. Kimi thinks someone should punch Perez in the face. Form a queue..starting with the world champions currently on the grid me thinks!

To Canada we go on the 8th/9th June weekend. Live on the BBC! Yeah!

On a birthday note - the picture below is now hanging on my wall, blown up rather large and printed on canvas - a great birthday present from my folks. Hangs next to framed paintings of Jacques and Gilles.

Senna - win at Donnington 93. His best race? Certainly the best first lap in F1 history - just ask Murray.

 

News roundup and results analysis

Justin:

Apologies to all....4...(?) readers for the rather dull title of this post.

I haven't blogged since Malaysia, which is a lifetime for me. My co-blogger has unofficially reduced his role from fellow founder of "I Was Having a Blog" and full-time blogger to making only special guest blogs when he really feels he needs to dump one out. Kimi would be proud, not answering to the calls of the fans or his team, listening only to what he wants to do and when. Or something.

I'm just going to pick out bits randomly from China and Bahrain.

China saw a massively dominant Fernando Alonso win which vaulted him right into the title fight. There were plenty of overtakes in an action packed race. Ferrari have a very fast car this year, and what's more is it's pace in qualifying which usually sees both drivers in the top 3/4 on the grid.

Unfortunately then in Bahrain Ferrari had plenty of issues, even though they qualified well and looked to be on for podiums in the race. Alonso had DRS problems which dropped him down the field, for a fight back to 8th. Massa had two punctures! Talk about bad luck.

Someone that cannot buy luck right now is Mark Webber. The wheels literally came off his campaign in China, nearly battering into Vettel in the process.

We saw hard and fast wheel to wheel racing with the Mclarens in Bahrain. People seemed to complain that Button complained too much about Perez's style of going racing.

To be fair to JB, if my teammate rammed me and nearly punctured my tyre whilst sending carbon fibre flying and then banging wheels with me at 200mph in another incident, I'd be annoyed too.

It was awesome to watch though wasn't it? :-).

Nico Rosberg bagged a very impressive pole in Bahrain then proceeded to travel backwards quickly during the race.

Lewis seems to be hanging on in third in the title race, 27 points behind Vettel, at the moment. To me though, in race trim, the Mercedes is just not as quick as Ferrari, red Bull or indeed Lotus.

Kimi has taken three podiums from four races thus far - consistency is key once again this year.

Alonso and Ferrari are quicker this year, but of a potential 4 podiums in the first 4 races, cock ups have seen many lost points - they should have told him not to use DRS again when he pitted at the very least.

He is now 4th, 30 points adrift of Vettel after the first 4 races.

It's a gap that cannot get any bigger and why a podium in Spain in two weeks is very much the order of the day.

Murray Walker has been presenting his fave moments from F1 though history for the BBC this year.

The last one was Villeneuve vs Arnoux in France in 1979. They'd be hauled before the stewards and banned for this type of racing these days, but boy did it look bloody awesome!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/22032240

Not the new Nick Heidfeld any more

Phil: I agree entirely with my co-blogger that we both knew Nico Rosberg could do it, the only doubt was whether, given the extent to which success in F1 depends on having the right machinery at the right time, he ever would. As my co-blogger has pointed out, Nico took his first win at his 111th race - only Button, Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello have had to wait longer for their maiden victory.

Let's be under no illusions that Nico was simply in the right place at the right time, and took a lucky first win, as plenty of other drivers have done. He was genuinely the class of the field in Shanghai - pole by a margin of half a second, and then the win with a margin of 20s.

Lovers of statistics will note that this was the first race won by anyone other than the Big 5 (Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, Button and Alonso) since Barrichello won at Monza in 2009. 1982 champion Keke Rosberg becomes the first driver to have won a race himself and then seen his son win one (Graham Hill and Gilles Villeneuve were dead when their sons won the world championship). Nico becomes the first man to win in a Mercedes since Fangio in 1955, and the first German driver to win at the wheel of a Mercedes since Hermann Lang, in the 1939 Swiss Grand Prix - held less than a fortnight before the outbreak of war.

This win should improve Nico's confidence no end, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him take another win before the end of the season - assuming Mercedes continue to have the pace they showed at Shanghai.

One thing is for certain - we are in for a cracker of a season. Three races in, and still no real pattern and no clear favourite. The last six races have been won by six different drivers, and the world championship is currently led by a man who hasn't won so far this season but who has managed three third places. As his boss Martin Whitmarsh said yesterday, 'who would try to predict who's going to win the next race?'

I wouldn't.

Almost forgot to give it a title!

Phil: Welcome to the Grand Prix They Couldn't Think of a Half Decent Name For, sometimes known as Valencia, Europe, or even the other Spanish Grand Prix. Which brings me straight to my point: how much will the home team be worth to Alonso? I'm guessing my co-blogger blogged before quali (he likes nothing better than a nice log blog in the morning), as Ferrari's new double diffuser put Alonso and Massa 'only' fourth and fifth on the grid respectively, behind Vettel, Webber and Hamilton.

Further down the grid, both Renaults and both Williams have outqualified both Mercedes, with Rosberg a disappointing 12th and Schumacher a hopeless 15th (but then I probably over-indulged in Schumi-bashing in Canada, so am going to leave him alone this time, unless he makes me do something). If a move by Kubica from Renault to Mercedes was on the cards before today, he should think very carefully before taking the offer up, particularly as he is clearly undisputed team leader at Renault, and would have a serious rival in Rosberg at Mercedes. But I don't think it's anything more than idle speculation.

Finally, I really think Jacques Villeneuve ought to be 110% exploring the limits of comedy facial hair, fannying about on the guitar and even having another crack at Le Mans before he explores even 1% of getting back in an F1 car.

Webberthon

Phil: When this blog first started, we tipped Mark Webber to win a race. I'm pleased to say our prediction has been proved right, even if it wasn't the race we were thinking of. When Martin Brundle spoke to him on the grid, he promised us a boring race, and he wasn't far wrong: his lead throughout the race was so unchallengeable that at times I almost forgot he was even in it. Taking his third career victory, he drove the perfect race: pole, fastest lap, and the win. His teammate Vettel, meanwhile, reminded us that the Red Bull is fast but also fragile.

Further down the grid, Michael Schumacher had the best result of his post-career, outqualifying and outracing his teammate to take fourth. Even so, this clearly isn't the Schumi of old: even if the Mercedes is most definitely fourth of the 'big four', he lacked pace and was clearly holding Button up during the middle part of the race. He finished around 40 seconds behind Vettel, who had no brakes, a dodgy wheel nut and a front wing that wasn't working properly. However, his on-track pace may have been lacking, but the on-screen graphic revealed he posted the fastest pitstop time of the day, with 3.8 seconds. The cream always rises to the top...

Jenson Button meanwhile retains his lead of the driver's championship. He was also last week granted the freedom of his home town, Frome in Somerset, which apparently gives him the right to do something involving sheep in the high street. If you were watching carefully during the pre-race coverage, you'll have noticed that they've also named a street after him, called, predictably enough, Jenson Drive. However, you'll have had to be watching BBC local news down here in the land of cider-drinkers to know that Jenson also visited his old primary school that day, where the kids sang him a specially written song in his honour, to the tune of 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'. Classy. Incidentally, he's always referred to on the local news (and nowhere else) as, 'the Frome Flyer' (they have to reinforce the local interest, of course), so it did cross my mind that among the business interests that retired F1 drivers tend to get involved in, he could start a fish and chip shop called, 'the Frome Fryer', in the same way that Niki Lauda called his airline Air Lauda. Sort of.

Anyway, skiver of the day. I was tempted to nominate Heikki Kovalainen, who started packing up ready to go home before the race had even begun, but I suspect Lotus will provide me with plenty of other opportunities to take the piss out of them during this season, so I'm going to nominate David Coulthard instead, who couldn't even be bothered to turn up. Obviously German Touring Cars are a whole lot more interesting than talking to Eddie Jordan. That's wasn't a joke by the way.

Looking towards the next race in China

Justin: Better late than never I guess. My Co-blogger left it to me to talk about Alonso's engine blowing at the end of the race in Sepang. What can I say? I was so traumatised I just could not face blogging about it. Talk about some fun racing though! Twice he overtook only for Button to re-pass him straight away. Nail biting stuff there!

It's too late in the day for me to go over what happened in Malaysia, particularly as my co-blogger did such a splendid job.

Looking towards China, forget the title race for a moment. I'd say the person with perhaps the most riding on this one is none other than Shumi himself.

Interestingly he came on record recently saying he was happy with his comeback thus far.

This article from The Observer comments about his comeback thus far - http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/apr/11/michael-schumacher-mercedes-formula-one

Personally, I don't think the Mercedes is a winning car so he won't win races just yet. But surely the arguement that it isn't a winning car doesnt mean Michael should be coming in lower than 6th in each race, usually miles behind his team mate.

I'm sure Shumi will be stung by being pigeon holed with Petrov as being the only two people on the grid to be out qualified at every race thus far by their respective team mates!

Ok, its only one more race, the 4th on his comeback trail, but I'd have thought he'd like to start going forwards as opposed to backwards sooner rather than later.

Race starts at 8am on the 18th, so coverage starts at 7am I think. Quali is on an hour or so earlier on the Saturday so it's two early ones. Bah! The things we do for F1 eh.

We want a Webber win

Phil: It feels almost indecent to be hoping for a home win for Australia, but I think as you say we'd both like to see Mark Webber win on Sunday. At some point in the mid-nineties, Frank Williams was asked which of the then-current crop of drivers he'd like to see win his maiden victory. He paused, and said, 'Mika Hakkinen' (this was a couple of years before Hakkinen won the world title, in 1998 and 1999). It's the same way with Webber. Yes, of course he took his maiden win at the Nurburgring last year, but all the same his is a talent that has mainly gone unrewarded. Many people, and I'm one of them, would tip Vettel to be the next world champion (not necessarily world champion this year, but the next driver to become world champion), but Mark is a match for Vettel. And this year could be his best shot at the title.

As for Hamilton, what he apparently did was skid on the way out of the paddock (interestingly enough, it looks like Mercedes still supply McLaren with off-track cars). The subject of skidmarks brings me deftly to this clip (you knew it wouldn't be long in coming) which may explain the name of this blog:

'Obviously you'll have a nice light car on the grid, then...'