Sunday, April 18, 2010

2010 Chinese GP Review: Button wins with Mercedes power dominating the podium

Jenson Button won his 2nd race of the year and won the Chinese GP under wet conditions to take lead in the driver’s championship. Jenson Button had a flawless driver where a mix of solid driving and good tire strategy won him the race. It was a good weekend for McLaren as Hamilton though did make some questionable moves throughout the race came in 2nd to ensure that they lead the constructor’s championship as well.

Rivals Mercedes should be happy with the result as Rosberg not only got his 2nd consecutive podium but also ensure that he is now 2nd in the championship while teammate Schumacher was still struggling and could get only one point of the race. Mercedes though were expected to struggle this weekend did look strong and it will be only a matter of time where they will have a car as fast as anyone else in the grid.

Red Bull though managed to have both their drivers scoring points should be highly disappointed with a questionable tire strategy which saw both their drivers who were on target for podium finishes to finish at 6th and 8th. It is still early days but then with the grid so tight and as many as 7 drivers fighting for the title as of now, RBR needs to get its act together or else may once again lose out on the championship.

Ferrari did not exactly have a good weekend and now they have lost both the driver’s and constructor’s championship positions to McLaren. Ferrari needs to sort out small issues if they need to win the title. Massa & Alonso are not too behind Button but they need a string of wins to start dominating the tables as there have been too many changes within such a short span of time.

Renault and Kubica would be cursing the safety car as they were on track for another podium but they once again had a solid weekend and managed to get both the cars on points. It was a good weekend for the team with Kubica still on the hunt for the driver’s championship while the team is definitely ahead of Force India, Williams and STR while it is fast catching up with Mercedes. Vitaly Petrov scored his first points and it was good to see the Russian driver finish his first F1 race with points as the previous 3 races saw him retire.

Force India had a solid package and should feel unlucky for not scoring any points but then the team is ahead of both Williams and STR but they have to do a lot of work to catch up with Renault. Williams are struggling and though the team may score points, they need some upgrades to catch up with Force India while STR is on par with them and could even overtake them during the European leg of the season.

Sauber continued to have a miserable start to the season and if this continues the team may just fold off. Though the car is pretty quick, the team has to work on reliability and should ensure that the team start finishing races before even thinking of points.

Among the 3 new teams, Lotus once again proved to be the best among them while HRT as of now seems to have a better package than Virgin but the European season could see some major changes among this pack.

It was very chaotic Chinese GP and Jenson Button is proving to be a good competitor for Hamilton as before the start of the season everyone expected Hamilton to blow Button away and though it is early days, if Button continue to perform this way, he may have a very serious shot in retaining his title.

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