What's good for Mercedes is good for F1?

Photo: Carlos Lopez

Photo:Roberto Blank

Nico Rosberg is not the highest paid driver never to have scored a pole in Formula 1 anymore but he still is the highest paid driver not to have ever won a race and there lies the key to the 2012 Chinese GP tomorrow.

Thanks in part to clever plumbing the Mercedes W03 is super fast over a single run but so far it has gone nothing but backwards in race conditions. Rosberg not only scored pole but he destroyed the opposition by a half second, a huge gap in F1.

The grid will be unusual and will certainly make for interesting first laps, two Mercs, Kobayashi and Kimi? I might even wake up in the middle of the night to watch.

There was something quite curious in the final Q3 results: P6 through 9, Button, Webber, Perez and Alonso (P10 Grosjean chose not to run Q3)all went slower in Q3 than they did is Q2. That's quite strange, a small difference in air temperature and wind direction change cost some cars well over a half second (Button 2/10ths, Webber 6/10, Perez 7/10. Alonso 7/10)?

Did these drivers hedge their best and are doing a rain dance tonight?

The shocker of the session has got to be Vettel not making it into Q3, no smiled ar Red Bull for sure, except for Webber that is. Vettel reverting to a different exhaust configuration? almost sounds like panic or, dare I say it a possible hissy fit?

Now back to Mercedes, their first pole, first front row (Hamilton, P2 in qualifying, has a penalty for a gearbox change) since the days of Fangio. Great headlines, great PR, what a coincidence it came right around the time heavy rumblings from the M-B board about the lack of results. Does it take Oliver Stone to see a connection between the stewards hilarious finding on the legality of the Mercedes F-duct and the understandable desire to keep Mercedes happy?

The 2010 F-Duct was was banned, drivers cannot activate something that changes the balance of the car except for the rear wing DRS element. OK the latest Brawn cleverness is not independent of DRS but surely it's a driver activated device that is NOT just the rear wing element. That i was found to be legal is quite amusing.

That is not to take away from Rosberg's pole lap, pretty close to perfection I'd say.

Bunus points if you are still amazed how at the first corner, F1 cars can turn in at 300+ km/h at full throttle and scrub speed winding around around that Taijitu shaped complex.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time          Gap   
 1.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m35.121s         
2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m35.626s  + 0.505
3.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m35.691s  + 0.570
4.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m35.784s  + 0.663
5.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m35.898s  + 0.777
6.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m36.191s  + 1.070
7.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m36.290s  + 1.169
8.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m36.524s  + 1.403
9.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m36.622s  + 1.501
10.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        No time
Q2 cut-off time: 1m35.831s                                   Gap **
11.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m36.031s  + 0.331
12.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m36.255s  + 0.555
13.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m36.283s  + 0.583
14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m36.289s  + 0.589
15.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m36.317s  + 0.617
16.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m36.745s  + 1.045
17.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m36.956s  + 1.256
Q1 cut-off time: 1m36.933s                                    Gap *
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m37.714s  + 1.516
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m38.463s  + 2.265
20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m38.677s  + 2.479
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m39.282s  + 3.084
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m39.717s  + 3.519
23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m40.411s  + 4.213
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m41.000s  + 4.802

107% time: 1m42.931s

* Gap to quickest in Q1

** Gap to quickest in Q2

Timing table via Autosport