Winter testing showed that the top 4 teams i.e Ferrari Mclaren , Red Bulls and Mercedez GP showed some good pace. All 4 teams were almost at par with the pace . At the beginning of the season, my Aussie mates told me that Red Bulls were the team to beat.Their money was on their home hero Mark Webber. Red bulls did show some good pace in qualifying at Bahrain GP with Sebstian Vettel sitting on pole followed by 2 Ferrari's of Alonso and Masa. Disappointment for my Aussie mates as Mark Webber could not manage to qualify in the top 3. In terms of qualifying pace, he was no where near to his team mate Sebastian Vettel. When the 5 red light went off in Baharain, I hoped that 2 Ferraris would make a good start and jump a place up on the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel. For nearly 2/3th of the race, Sebastian lead the race. I was convineced that the victory would go to Sebastian Vettel. I jokingly said to my friend Anuj " What if Sebstian Vettel has an engine failure" A few laps later the prophecy was fulfilled. Sorry Sebastian!Vettel, his car slowed by what was later found to be not a broken exhaust, but a failing engine, was caught and summarily passed by the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa, as well as Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren. First blood went to Alonso who become only the3rd driver after Kimi to win a race for Ferrari on debut
With heavy fuel loads and a much heavier car, overtaking in Baharain was next to impossible.Despite the very best efforts of its energetic organising team, Bahrain simply failed to put on a show where it matters, on the racetrack. The race never lived up to pre- season expectations, frustrating those hoping for wheel-to-wheel racing . Most people thought that Forumla 1 2010 season will become extremely boring
A week later in the Melbourne GP, critics were proved wrong. A wet race proved to be extremely exciting. We saw some good overtaking moves especially by Alonso and Hamilton as they worked their way up the grid.In terms of racing, Melbourne had the lot in terms of action. Sometimes it was a bit too fast and furious - Too fast, too furious' perfectly sums up Mark Webber's race. A strategic bungle, making the first pit stop too late, wasted his front row start, meaning that the home hero had to fight his way back up the order. A string of incidents, culminating in his collision with Hamilton and an eventual ninth place was small reward for obvious effort proving disappointment for the home crowd
Fernando Alonso's spin at the opening corner was self-inflicted when he moved across the track into Jenson Button's path, but his fight back from the tail of the field was awesome, in contrast to a lacklustre performance from Michael Schumacher when he found himself in a similar position.
Button's inspired choice, to become the first driver to switch from intermediate wet weather tyres to dry-weather slicks could so easily have backfired. In fact it almost did, as he promptly slid straight off the still-wet track on the first corner after leaving the pits.Having recovered, Button took on the challenge of making the soft-compound ‘option' tyres last for a further 50 laps, when most pundits expected them to last at most for twenty. Whitmarsh's comment perhaps hints that it even went in the face of advice from the McLaren team.If that is the case, all credit to Button and to his race engineer Jakob Andreasson for holding to their plan. Race Victory to defending World Champion Jenson Button
For more than a decade of course, there was one driver unchallenged for the ‘rainmeister' crown, but Michael Schumacher sadly failed to live up to his reputation in Melbourne. He was unlucky to get caught up in Fernando Alonso's first corner clash with Button, but after dropping to the tail of the field his lacklustre race was in marked contrast to Alonso's spectacular fight back. He made heavy weather of passing combinations such as Lucas di Grassi in the Virgin Cosworth and Jaime Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso. Worse still, after the race he seemed laid back about his lowly tenth place finish, five places behind team mate Nico Rosberg.
Has Schumi's fire gone out during his three years away from the sport?
Then came Sepang's legendary rain and bewildering bungles by both McLaren AND Ferrari in qualifying which meant four of Red Bull's main contenders started at the back of the grid. Meanwhile Vettel and team-mate Webber locked out the front row of the grid The race was described as an 'open goal' for the team. The only question, which driver would score?. Webber claimed pole position thanks to an inspired choice of intermediate wet weather tyres in Saturday qualifying. However it was Vettel who 'connected' with his car perfectly off the startline, matching the clutch take-up, engine revs and throttle for a perfect start, giving him sufficient momentum to snatch the lead at Turn 1.and went on to win the race. Round 3 went to Red Bull. There were mixed fortunes for Alonso and Massa. While Massa recovered from his 21st place start to finish an eventual 7th, Alonso increasingly struggled with a gearbox that was missing gearshifts.The mechanical stresses perhaps contributed to an engine failure that saw Alonso forced to retire with just a single lap remaining. The non-points score saw the Spaniard cruelly lose the World Championship lead.
Hamiton kept the crowd on their feet with some great overtaking moves working his wayup the grid. Maclaren had good straight line speed and were 5 kms faster on the long straight run as compared to their rivals
Round 4 moved to Shanghai. Looking at the form book, the China Grand Prix should have been easy to predict. Red Bull had again dominated qualifying with a 1-2 for Vettel and Webber, while challengers McLaren were tucked away on row three of the gridHowever, once again the weather played its hand, creating a tyre choice lottery that the front runners lost. Jenson Button and his crew, as in Australia, simply got the calls right every time. Jenson's win at the head of a McLaren 1-2 was fully deservedLewis Hamilton once again drove his heart out, but his performance was patchy. In his best moments his driving was sublime. Lewis's race up the order, passing among others, Barrichello, Sutil, Schumacher, Webber, Vettel, Kubica and finally after a spirited battle, Rosberg was spectacular. Smooth driving and the right tyre choice gave Button his second victory of the season and first 1-2 finish for McLaren who now lead the constructors champion ship.
