For the fourth round of the 2014 Formula One season, all the drivers and their respective teams were seen taking on a very wet 5.4 km-long Shanghai International Circuit. Having won the opening three races of this season, Mercedes were as the crowd favourite in China, but Ferrari was also in the radar as it was competing for the first time under new team principal Marco Mattiacci.
The weather took a turn for the worse today as the qualifying races began with rains hovering over the track. All the drivers, as a result, initially opted for either the green-marked intermediate tyres or the blue-marked full wet weather rubber.
Q1 began with the Marussias heading out first on the track. A few other teams head out soon to join them, most on full wets. It was Nico Rosberg from Mercedes AMG Petronas and Kamui Kobayashi from Caterham F1 who soon confirmed just how slippery the track was, running very wide at one of the turns. Despite poor visibility, Rosberg initially leads the way but it was his teammate Lewis Hamilton who eventually tops the timesheet in Q1, ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Red Bull Racing’s star driver Sebastian Vettel.
Q2 began with Adrian Sutil, driving for Sauber, heading out first on the track, on intermediates. With track conditions failing to improve, all the drivers found it really hard to put all their power down. Soon enough, it was evident that conditions are rather tricky out on the track as even front runners face heavy drama, with their cars going off-track and running wide. Escalating rain at the end of the Q2 barred most drivers from improving their lap times. The end result, nonetheless, read Lewis Hamilton as the fastest of them all. Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button, Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez all fail to make it to Q3.
The final session i.e. Q3 began with Sebastian Vettel heading out for what was the most intense battle of the day. The German is soon followed by Rosberg, Ricciardo and Alonso all on intermediates. With flying laps underway, Vettel makes things very clear by setting a good benchmark time, however, Hamilton quickly beats it. All in all, the final qualifying session witnessed an impressive show by Hamilton and Rosberg with both Mercedes drivers trading fastest sector times. It all looked very good for the Silver Arrows right until the moment when Rosberg spinned coming out of the final corner after losing it over the slippery kerbs.
The real battle between the front runners ended with Lewis Hamilton taking pole position for tomorrow’s race with a time of 1:53.860. The Mercedes GP driver is followed by Daniel Ricciardo who managed a 1:54.455 thereby taking the second position. Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel took the final podium spot with a time of 1:54.960.
The red lights will go out tomorrow precisely at 12:30 hours. Given the starting grid and the expected weather condition, race day could be exciting indeed. Join us then as we bring you all the high-rolling action from Shanghai.
Photo Courtesy: ForceIndiaF1
