Chinese Highlights: Rosberg's Brawn Cracker
by Craig Normansell on Apr 18th, 2011To say Mercedes have had a turbulent start to 2011 would be an understatement. Lacklustre displays of pace in the opening two rounds from both Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg meant that when the German marque's bigwigs turned up to witness their F1 programme first-hand, tensions were high.
Twelve months ago the younger German fought hard to secure a maiden podium for the returning manufacturer and after managing to work through the Q2 traffic on Saturday, sealed a second row start with fourth. When the lights went out and the McLarens shot past Vettel, Rosberg pushed to pass also but fell back to defending from the Ferraris as everyone settled into their races. If this was 2010 it would have been game over for any chance of a podium. But thankfully, due to the magic of Pirelli, DRS and KERS, his afternoon wasn't anywhere near over.
With the first round of pit-stops underway Nico scuttled in from fourth for new tyres and exited down in 10th. Stopping on lap 13 meant he was on a three-stopper, and being on the harder prime rubber meant slower lap times for a while. All the cars around him stopped roughly over the same period: Button mistook the Red Bull garage for his own and backed up Vettel on lap 15, while Hamilton (lap 15), Massa (lap 15) and Alonso (lap 16) all came in too.
Photo: Mercedes GP
After that brief shuffle, a few viewers had to wipe their eyes a little harder from the early race start to see who was out in front. Rosberg led by a whopping 5 seconds, from Vettel. Some of us in the Sett couldn't quite believe it, sparking this Twitter conversation between myself and Jimmy:
@OneCraigNorman - "Wait, Rosberg has pitted and LEADS?!"
@JimmyVonWeeks - "Has he stopped!?"
@OneCraigNorman - "I think so. This is so confusing!"
@JimmyVonWeeks - "Good though!"
Eventually Rosberg dropped back and thanks to an issue with fuel consumption didn't deliver a result that the stint in the lead promised. Of course, the young German was disappointed and knew the chance had been there.
"Naturally I'm disappointed with the race today as we know that we didn't make the most of our opportunity out there," he said. "We've made a big step with the car this weekend which is really nice to see and we will have better races in future. Leading the race for such a long time was a great feeling but we had issues with the fuel consumption which made it really difficult to fight for position.
Photo: Mercedes GP
"We could have had a podium finish or maybe more today, but we will learn from this together as a team and make sure that we get the results next time."
The thing to take from this is that the wily Ross Brawn has dusted off his thinking cap from the late-nineties and wants to show he's still got it. Without the weight of owning a team on his shoulders anymore, maybe the master strategist that we all remember him for is starting to come to the fore once more.
Comments and Discussion
Sorry but you are kidding right? Rosberg raced a poor race as he always does. He was overtaken by mark webber from 18th and finished 2 places behind his grid position. If there's any driver on the grid you can guarentee will finish on his grid spot or lower it's rosberg. If schumachers wing had worked in qualifying or if rosbergs haddn't he would have been behind schumacher at the first corner and stayed there the whole race. He even admitted him self it was a terrible race. Clearly the men of the race were hamilton webber and schumacher they got more overtakes between them than probably all the drivers from the entire of last season combined. Sorry this is the first badger article i have bemoaned but i really think you called this wrong.
Really?
Of course you're entitled to your own opinion, but the fact that he pitted before anyone else while in 4th and emerged from the first round of stops to lead surely gets a nod because, and let's be honest, can you name another time in the past few years when a midfield driver has pitted early and ended up leading?
Had the race lasted three more laps, Webber would've overtaken Vettel AND Lewis, the rate of knots he was going on those fresh options. Rosberg had a fuel consumption problem preventing him from keeping a high pace, but Webber was on a charge and not many could stop him. And he finished one place down on his original grid slot, due to Webber's charge. That's not that poor a finish ultimately.
Lastly, Murray Walker was famous for saying "If is F1 spelled backwards". If Nico's wing had failed then he would've been further down the field, yes. If a wheelnut hadn't failed the whole field would've finished. If Button had looked up he would've pitted in the right box. If Webber's car hadn't failed he would not have qualified 18th, and so on. There's alot of speculation in your reasoning.
Deffinetly webber was fantastic he finished 2.5 seconds behind his team m8 which wouldn't be bad even without factoring in overtaking 15 cars. Even though he mugged the whole field it's still pretty shamefull being overtaken by a man from the opposite end of the grid JB to but in fairness he had lost china in the first stop so thats something else completely. Nico didn't make a big mistake like that he just wasn't fast enough. N i still stick with my point about nico almost never finishing ahead of his grid slot. If you were a manager and your driver say on average qualified 6th and on average finished 6th or 7th I really wouldn't want to employee that driver for another season i'd be expecting a few 4th' or 5th' give me 2x kowasabi's (brundlism) don't know about you.
P.S i can't name another race that has happened in now but i might be able to before the season ends
Rosberg finished on the podium at last year's Chinese GP in the rain after qualifying fourth mate. Plus, he virtually outraced schuey at every GP last year, add to that his soft driving style (as Brundle said) and I think he will eventually become a star with adequate machinery.
Clearly TheBrav3 doesn't like princesses!
on that note, would everyone agree that Alonso should pick up the mantle of F1 Princess? Certainly based on how much he is whining again, 2007 all over again. I will wet myself if Massa starts regularly beating him, watch his whining increase.
Last year doesn't mean much schumacher was 3 years out of the sport getting on almost double the age of his team m8 and relearning the art of f1, he topped rosberg in qualy by the last 2 races. Look where they are now schu has beat rosberg in almost every session bar qualifying. Having a car break in qualifying is not schumachers fault. If hamilton haddn't made it to the grid last sunday would that have been his fault? not at all.
Yes adam the chinese gp last year. In total he finished ahead of his grid spot 10 times out of 19 races and bar 2 or 3 of those results his grid spot was 9th-15th to begin with. On average (when he did make up places) he made up 1 place. Not hard at all for a car like the mercedes from that position on the grid. Even with out cars ahead of him retireing which they often did. Is that really good enough? no.
But enough about last year. Look at Malaysia this year he qualified 9th near but infront of his team m8 and managed to finish 12th!!! Behind both force india's his team m8 and kamui kobayashi all of whom qualified behind him! qualifiying that low on the grid and not being able to even finish in your qualifying spot is terrible! he finished ahead of A lotus A virgin and 2 toro rosso's lol.
Actually scott I like rosberg I think he's a great guy which is why it upsets me that i feel he lets everyone down with his racing.
Anywho enough from me if you think rosberg's that good feel free to bet on him all you want lol!
2/1 to felipe already and no nico is clearly the princess. alonso is more like the court mage, he thinks he's magic but actually he's just a senile old man.