Saturday 16 April 2011

There's no hope, Vettel again

Sebastian Vettel looks set to cruise to his fifth consecutive win in China tomorrow after taking a resounding pole position today by just under three quarters of a second from Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, resplendent in their new orange suits.

You can't help thinking it was only electrical problems that prevented a Red Bull lock-out of the front row. The rest of the field can only hope that the same problems beset Vettel tomorrow.

Its a very long time since we've seen a car with such a time advantage over the opposition and while race pace seems to be more evenly matched I am sure Vettel will emerge on top. Nico Rosberg, Alonso and Felipe Massa rounded out the top six and a game effort from Paul di Resta sees him start 8th.

There doesn't seem to be any rain on the way so we can't bank on that intervening, for the sake of the race we'll have to hope Jense and Lewis get off the line quickly and make it worth the early start. Tyre wear doesn't seem to be as high as in Malaysia but on the plus side with the mammoth back straight with the banked turn before it the DRS should be more of a factor.

Race prediction: 1. Vettel 2. Hamilton 3. Button

1 comment:

haitchjg said...

Mercedes may be the dark horses.......certainly doesn't look like the Prancing Horses have solved any problems with qualifying......but I think their late race performance is something to be taken into account, maybe low fuel, rubbered in track works the opposite way to that of the other teams. Lets see if Sauber do the two stop routine again too!!