2005 Chinese GP - Shanghai

[Vaigra]

I'm pretty sure everybody knows the situation.
Alonso has the drivers championship, and Renault lead Mclaren by 2 points in the constructors championship. Here are the qualifying positions:
1 F. Alonso Renault 1:34.080
2 G. Fisichella Renault 1:34.401
3 K. Räikkönen McLaren 1:34.488
4 J. Button BAR 1:34.801
5 JP. Montoya McLaren 1:35.188
6 M. Schumacher Ferrari 1:35.301
7 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:35.428
8 R. Barrichello Ferrari 1:35.610
9 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:35.723
10 M. Webber Williams 1:35.739
11 F. Massa Sauber 1:35.898
12 J. Trulli Toyota 1:36.044
13 A. Pizzonia Williams 1:36.445
14 C. Klien Red Bull 1:36.472
15 N. Karthikeyan Jordan 1:36.707
16 J. Villeneuve Sauber 1:36.788
17 T. Sato BAR 1:37.083
18 C. Albers Minardi 1:39.105
19 T. Monteiro Jordan 1:39.233
20 R. Doornbos Minardi 1:39.460

The two Renaults on the front row with Raikkonen right behind them. Judging by previous performances, I predict Raikkonen to take the win, Alonso second, Montoya third and Fisichella fourth, without taking into account any mishaps/accidents. If I'm right, Mclaren get 16 points and Renault get 13, giving the Constructors championship to Mclaren by one point.
M.Schumacher up in 6th..not bad, probably won't come into the mix this time round but the fight for 5-10 should be interesting with Coulthard, Barrichello, R.Schumacher and Webber all up there.
Should be good . Your opinions?

[Rockefella]

The two Renaults on the front row with Raikkonen right behind them. Judging by previous performances, I predict Raikkonen to take the win, Alonso second, Montoya third and Fisichella fourth, without taking into account any mishaps/accidents. If I'm right, Mclaren get 16 points and Renault get 13, giving the Constructors championship to Mclaren by one point.
M.Schumacher up in 6th..not bad, probably won't come into the mix this time round but the fight for 5-10 should be interesting with Coulthard, Barrichello, R.Schumacher and Webber all up there.
Should be good . Your opinions?

I'm thinking:

1. J.P. Montoya
2. F. Alonso
3. K. Raikkonen
4. J. Button
5. M. Schumacher
6. M. Webber
Fisichella = DNF

[dimlight]

IM guessing we have to watch the damn thing first .

Nothing is predictable in the world of motorsports.. Renault and mclaren are running with low km engines.. instead of 1400 ,, 700 .. so we might see someone blow an engine.. most probably.

[Rockefella]

IM guessing we have to watch the damn thing first .

Nothing is predictable in the world of motorsports.. Renault and mclaren are running with low km engines.. instead of 1400 ,, 700 .. so we might see someone blow an engine.. most probably.

Kimi is running a 1400km engine, seeing as last week he was running a new engine.

[dimlight]

Kimi is running a 1400km engine, seeing as last week he was running a new engine.

hhhhhmmmmm .. my bad then .. but he´s still using the suzuka engine

[Vaigra]

at the start of the season, the whole 2-race engine situation was hyped so much and talked about, but now it's hardly ever mentioned who's running with a new engine or an engine used in the previous race. I guess it's less important as they continue to improve engine longevity throughout the year.

[Jack_Bauer]

Is anyone watching the race live right now? Christ I'm tired! At least I got an extra hour in bed compared to last weekend's Japanese GP.

Anyway, big news so far is that Schumacher has crashed before the race started!!! He collided with Albers on the outlap on the way to the grid. Looked like he moved sharply across the line under braking, which is his fault, but also there was no reason for Albers to be pushing so close on an outlap. The stewards will probably just see it as a 50-50 incident and deem that starting from the pitlane is punishment enough for both.

Looks like it's gonna be a woeful end to a woeful season for Schumi and Ferrari. He must really hate this track after the nightmare he had last year too.

[Jack_Bauer]

Well, guess nobody else got up early to watch this one, just me!

Oh well, you probably made the right choice. It was such a disappointing end to the season. Everything was set up for an engrossing finale to the WCC and we were robbed by the shoddy track design and build quality. McLaren's championship quite literally went down the drain. (sorry, couldn't resist! )

Congrats to Alonso and Renault I guess for taking the clean sweep of the prizes. Although I'd prefer McLaren to win it, purely because I despise Flabbio Briatore, both Renault drivers drove well today despite Fisi's pathetic antics in the pitlane which he was rightly punished for. The Renault car, although clearly second fastest this year, was pretty near faultless reliability wise in stark contrast to the McLaren. And for the first 3 or 4 races they were on the pace of the McLarens and they were super-quick today too.

McLaren must be absolutely sick. They had the fastest car, won more races than anyone else and still somehow lost the WCC. Aside from their early reliability woes they still should've had enough to take the title but they were screwed today by factors way beyond their control. They'll be hoping they used up all of their bad luck this season and that they can bounce back stronger than ever in '06.

The safety car periods screwed the race up totally as a spectatle. The only person who seemed to benefit was Ralf Schumacher who managed to blag a podium. Poor Jenson Button and David Coulthard were battling it out for 5th place, which would've been 4th after JPM dropping out yet the safety car came out at exactly the wrong time for both of them and they lost MASSES of time each.

For me the most impressive bit of driving in the whole race was Jacques Villeneuve taking evasive action at 180mph to dodge Karthikayan's totalled Jordan spining across the track.

As for the "Clown of the Race" award it has to be a joint award for Michael Schumacher and Takuma Sato. They were both absolutely awful all day, with no redeeming features to their performance. Some hilariously poor mistakes from the pair of them.

Well, that's it for 05. It was a long, entertaining, and at times bafflingly strange season. The highs were very high (Monaco, Suzuka) but the lows were very low (Indy, BAR's d/q and ban). Roll on 2006!

[henk4]

Well, guess nobody else got up early to watch this one, just me!

I followed most of the race via Life-Timing (www.f1.com). I am five hours ahead of the UK time zone.

and I am happy that Renault won, because I despise Ron Denis.

[DasModell]

it was the worse race of the season probably .. boring
Renault did a super job to win the championship .. it looked almost lost a few races ago .

5 hours .. Tashkent, Karachi, Islamabad ??

roll on 2006 indeed .. and somebody please roll some Bridgestone heads

[henk4]

5 hours .. Tashkent, Karachi, Islamabad ??

Almaty, and may be Bucharest next month.

[Cyco]

I got to watch it in the afternoon, just after the MotoGP and when I got home from 70km on the bike

Not a great race spectical but to have a second grate come loose after a similar incident when the V8 Supercars were there earlier in the year is poor venue management. If you can find the pics ot the V8 after running over the grate you will see how lucky JPM was to only hit it with his tyre.

[henk4]

I got to watch it in the afternoon, just after the MotoGP and when I got home from 70km on the bike

self propelled bike? or motor bike.....

[DasModell]

i was close enough
you always come in Romania when is cold
to enjoy Romania most(aka the girls .looking only of course) . the best time is in the summer

[henk4]

i was close enough
you always come in Romania when is cold
to enjoy Romania most(aka the girls .looking only of course) . the best time is in the summer

I come to work