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man devil

i really cant call this one as any one of six drivers could nick it , i think the dirty great long back strait will suit the mercedes engine cars ,

with there BHP advantage there is probably a couple of tenths advantage on that strait alone for them so very likely hamilton and rosberg will be very lively ,

my heart tells me hamilton or rosberg however my head says only a fool discounts alonso or vettel whatever type of circuit it is --

It's anyones race. Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, Kimi, Rosberg and Webber are all contenders and let's not forget that if McLaren have sorted out their car, Button may also be a dark horse.

We'll see, looking forward to it

Free practice is being shown live on BBC2.

China has 2 DRS zones so maybe Rosberg will wait until the second DRS detection point before he overtakes the driver in front of him rather than bothering to overtake in DRS1 to simply lose it in DRS2 like he did in Malaysia.

The China track back straight, at over 1Km, is the longest in the season.

I am hoping for dry qualy and race.

Pirelli have stated that the teams need 3 races before they can understand the tyres but the previous 2 races have been rain effected. Also, this will be the first race that the soft tyre has been used.

C'Mon WTCBU. You know as well as everyone else, Rosberg was making a point by overtaking in the first DRS zone, and then being retaken.

Totally agree about the tyres, but to be fair sounds like BS coming from Pirelli.Maybe its those guys who are trying to understand why they had a perfect balance last year and this year they a producing a tyre which forces the drivers to slow down.

First Practice result:

1. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 1:36.717
2. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes - 1:37.171
3. Mark Webber - Red Bull - 1:37.658
4. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1:37.942
5. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 1:37.965
6. Jenson Button - McLaren - 1:38.069
7. Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 1:38.095
8. Adrian Sutil - Force India - 1:38.125
9. Romain Grosjean - Lotus - 1:38.398
10. Paul Di Resta - Force India - 1:38.561
11. Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus - 1:38.790
12. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso - 1:39.057
13. Pastor Maldonado - Williams - 1:39.158
14. Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber - 1:39.180
15. Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso - 1:39.336
16. Sergio Perez - McLaren - 1:39.360
17. Valtteri Bottas - Williams - 1:39.392
18. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber - 1:40.032
19. Jules Bianchi - Marussia - 1:41.966
20. Max Chilton - Marussia - 1:42.056
21. Giedo van der Garde - Caterham - 1:42.083
22. Qinghua Ma - Caterham - 1:43.545

FP2 Results

2013 FORMULA 1 UBS CHINESE GRAND PRIX
Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps
1 4 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:35.340 32
2 7 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:35.492 0.152 32
3 3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:35.755 0.415 30
4 9 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:35.819 0.479 35
5 2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:36.092 0.752 31
6 5 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:36.432 1.092 29
7 10 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:36.496 1.156 39
8 15 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:36.514 1.174 32
9 14 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:36.595 1.255 33
10 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:36.791 1.451 27
11 6 Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1:36.940 1.600 16
12 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:36.963 1.623 31
13 12 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1:37.103 1.763 22
14 19 Daniel Ricciardo STR-Ferrari 1:37.206 1.866 39
15 18 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Ferrari 1:38.127 2.787 34
16 17 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1:38.185 2.845 18
17 11 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1:38.211 2.871 32
18 16 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:38.276 2.936 34
19 22 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1:38.725 3.385 29
20 21 Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1:39.271 3.931 21
21 20 Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1:39.814 4.474 27
22 23 Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1:43.227 7.887 5

It's amazing what Bianchi is doing with that car. Making Chilton look like a dud with relative ease

Bit harsh on Chilton, clearly had a problem in FP2 given how close their times were in FP1.

Promising stuff from McLaren with JB best of the brits.

Can see either Massa, Alonso or Raikkonen taking this one but I can also see Button, Hamilton and Rosberg nipping at their heels throughout.

Speed trap and sector time data:

http://tinyurl.com/c3xozj3

The Saubers are owning the speed traps followed by the Mercs and the Ferrari. McLaren is near the bottom with the Red Bulls almost mid pack. Sector times suggest Massa could go even faster as he seemed to loose a little in S3, 0.2s behind Alonso despite being just as fast in the speed trap.

I wouldn't read too much into speed trap data as it could indicate a lack of downforce.

Chilton hasn't shown anything yet, we'll see. Bianchi looks the business though

man devil

supposedly it is thru the quick corners bianchi makes up the time -
certainly look forward to seeing him in a competitive car ,

must admit bottas is the one that really excites me , frank williams seems to believe he is the most naturally gifted driver that has come along for a long time
--------------- thats good enough for me --

There's a lot of hype around Bottas, we'll see. What I find amusing though is that hulkenberg left force india for sauber and now force india looks way more competitive.

People underrate Sutil, he's a decent driver and Rosberg is the business too. A very talented grid indeed

FP3 Results

1 Spain F Alonso Ferrari
2 Brazil F Massa Ferrari
3 Great Britain L Hamilton Mercedes
4 Germany S Vettel Red Bull
5 Australia M Webber Red Bull
6 Germany A Sutil Force India
7 Finland K Raikkonen Lotus
8 Great Britain J Button McLaren
9 Mexico S Perez McLaren
10 Germany N Hulkenberg Sauber
11 France J Vergne Toro Rosso
12 Australia D Ricciardo Toro Rosso
13 Venezuela P Maldonado Williams
14 Germany N Rosberg Mercedes
15 Finland V Bottas Williams
16 Great Britain P Di Resta Force India
17 Mexico E Gutierrez Sauber
18 France R Grosjean Lotus
19 France J Bianchi Marussia
20 France C Pic Caterham
21 Great Britain M Chilton Marussia
22 Netherlands G van der Garde Caterham

Hamilton on Pole

Grid

1 Great Britain L Hamilton Mercedes
2 Finland K Raikkonen Lotus
3 Spain F Alonso Ferrari
4 Germany N Rosberg Mercedes
5 Brazil F Massa Ferrari
6 France R Grosjean Lotus
7 Australia D Ricciardo Toro Rosso
8 Great Britain J Button McLaren
9 Germany S Vettel Red Bull
10 Germany N Hulkenberg Sauber
11 Great Britain P Di Resta Force India
12 Mexico S Perez McLaren
13 Germany A Sutil Force India
14 Australia M Webber Red Bull
15 Venezuela P Maldonado Williams
16 France J Vergne Toro Rosso
17 Finland V Bottas Williams
18 Mexico E Gutierrez Sauber
19 France J Bianchi Marussia
20 Great Britain M Chilton Marussia
21 France C Pic Caterham
22 Netherlands G van der Garde Caterham

Nice one.

Mercedes always seem to go well round here. Good luck, Lewis.

I reckon Button and Vettel will be the ones to watch tomorrow. That far back on fresher tyres should make for some interesting battles.

Indeed, more so JB as he's got race craft unlike the finger. They've got to be patient in turn 1 though because it could all end in tears.

Should be a cracking race

Have to tip my hat to you boys how called Lewis for the pole. Great call.
Is he maybe under fueled again? It still seems to me that hes far beyond the capabilities of that car.

In the racing predictor game, I got the pole time spot on

Webber demoted to the back of the grid for issues with Fuel

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