Has the qualifying textbook been ripped up by Hamilton, and even Webber?

Change in tactics for the rest of the season?

Lewis Hamilton’s fantastic victory in China was massively helped by the brand new rubber he had available to him at each of his 3 pit stops. To do this, he had to forfeit one of his attempts at pole position in the Q3 shoot out on Saturday.

Lewis could only manage 3^rd position on the grid, behind Vettel and Button who opted for the more traditional two timed laps in Q3. But what became blatantly obvious during the Chinese Grand Prix is that track position early in the race isn’t the most important thing anymore - not with Pirelli tyres. Lewis got faster and faster as the race went on, whilst others around him started to struggle.

What made this even more evident was Mark Webber’s stunning drive from 18^th to the podium (3^rd). As Christian Horner put it, they ran Mark’s normal race strategy in reverse. He started on the slower Prime tyre and made little progress in the first third of the race. In as many words, Mark said seeing p17 on the pit board so far into the race was demoralising, but the race came back to him.

The combination of his Red Bull getting lighter and faster, with his fresh sets of tyres at his disposal, meant Webber went on a successful mission to the podium. Martin Brundle commented numerous times early on in the race about the seemingly ludicrous strategy Red Bull had put him on – as Webber progressed, he eventually had to eat his words.

Could these drives change future qualifying strategies?

By Mark Webber and Red Bull screwing up his qualifying session and starting 18^th, they had plenty of fresh tyres at their disposal to have a good race. Quote obviously, starting 18^th isn’t an optimal strategy as it still leaves an incredible amount of work to do during the race.

But Lewis Hamilton’s decision to only set one timed lap in Q3 is a trend we could see used more this year. Lewis won the race by having a decent race strategy that spanned from lap 1, to lap 56. By going for pole position and using an extra set of tyres, other driver’s strategies can possibly only take them up to the last pit stop – then they are really on their own. The difference in grip and therefore speed in the closing staged of China was astonishing. Every team on the grid will have learnt a hell of a lot from this weekends race.

They’ll be pleased to now have 3 weeks to implement to ultimate strategy for the Turkish GP.

Posted by James Wilson. - Follow him on twitter @enterf1.

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Last Comment Posted »

• The seems quite likely, to get a banker in first perhaps.

  The only thing is, will the smaller teams who make it into Q3 see it as an opportunity...
  by Jimmy@enterF1
  [ click here to read in full ]