VETTEL’S COLD, WET, LONELY … AND FAST
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel on the straight during a practice session yesterday for the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. The circuit was windy and wet before the race today. While the Ferrari driver clocked the fastest time in practice, last year’s race was won by Lewis Hamilton, with Vettel placing second.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has cast doubt on his Chinese Grand Prix victory chances after Sebastian Vettel led a Ferrari front row lockout in qualifying yesterday.
“I don’t know if we can challenge, we’re half a second behind today,” the Mercedes-GP driver after aborting his final flying lap and taking fourth place on the grid with teammate Valtteri Bottas third.
“Honestly I can’t tell you if we can challenge. We were quicker in the race in the last race (Bahrain) but they (Ferrari) were able to hold on. They will probably do the same tomorrow.”
Vettel, like Hamilton a fourtime world champion, has won the first two races of the season and built up a 17-point lead over the Mercedes driver.
The German was 0.530 seconds faster than Bottas in qualifying and 0.568 quicker than Hamilton, who has won an unprecedented five times previously in Shanghai and arrived as a favourite.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said making the tyres work was the problem.
“They (Ferrari) have been really strong already in the morning, but qualifying performance they put one on top and we have something to think about,” the Austrian said.
“We’re lacking grip. You can fall out of the window by the tyres getting too hot or being too cold. They are two extremes like we had in Bahrain and I think this is what happened. I think it’s a tyre issue.”
Sunday is expected to be a lot warmer than Saturday’s windy and cold conditions and Wolff hoped Mercedes had got their race set-up right and could show better pace than their rivals and make the most of strategy.
A happy Vettel, who is aiming to win his 50th grand prix today, said: “The car was really amazing. It just kept getting better, so really happy. I knew that on the first lap I had some mistakes.
“I lost the rear at Turn 3 at the exit of the low-speed, and then 6 again, so I was a bit beaten up, but then I knew that if I got a tidy lap and I have a little bit of margin then I could push.”
It is the first time since 2006 that Ferrari have had front row lockouts in successive races.
The Red Bull Racing cars of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo start fifth and sixth on the grid, with the latter recovering well after a blown engine in practice had limited his time on track.
Nico Hulkenberg best of the rest in seventh in his Renault, ahead of Sergio Perez’s Force India, with the second Renault of Carlos Sainz and the Haas of Romain Grosjean completing the top 10.
The race in Shanghai starts at 10.10am UAE time.