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Daniel Ricciardo produced a masterclass in overtaking to win a topsy-turvy Chinese Grand Prix.

He beat Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen to second and third, Lewis Hamilton could only manage fourth while Max Verstappen was fifth after a time penalty and another collision with a four-time World Champion in Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel would finish eighth after that, behind Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso, with Carlos Sainz and Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top 10.

Ricciardo took his sixth Grand Prix win, and his sixth from outside the top three on the grid.

The result closes the top of the standings up, with Vettel now just 11 points ahead of Hamilton, 16 clear of Bottas and 19 ahead of Ricciardo.

Bottas had earlier jumped Vettel in the first round of pitstops while Raikkonen fell way back as Ferrari slept on the pit wall.

But the race hinged on a Safety Car thrown on lap 27 when the two Toro Rossos of Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley collided and spread debris across the circuit.

Red Bull chose to pit both of their drivers with Verstappen running third and Ricciardo fifth, while Vettel, Bottas and Hamilton stayed out on medium tyres.

Verstappen immediately set about Hamilton in third and ran wide at turn seven trying an ambitious move around the outside of a man whom he has already had a run-in with this season, while Ricciardo had more success deposing Raikkonen to sixth.

Ricciardo took advantage and moved up to fourth and was on the back of Hamilton within two laps.

He then produced a banzai move from well back , crucially still making the apex, to surprise an off-colour Hamilton and move up to third.

The easiest overtake of the lot came on Sebastian Vettel, as he breezed past on the back straight, while Verstappen eventually passed Hamilton.

Ricciardo saved his best for last, as Bottas looked to have covered the inside line into Turn six.

The Australian had other ideas and squeezed through to surprise both the Finn and the viewing public.

By contrast, Verstappen’s late lunge on Vettel sent them both into a spin and earned the Dutchman a penalty while Raikkonen moved up ahead of Hamilton in the melee.

The spin damaged Vettel’s tyres and he was a sitting duck for Alonso five laps from the end.

Verstappen’s penalty caps off an awful start to 2018 after skirmishes in Australia and a non-finish in Bahrain after two accidents in Sakhir.

Red Bull will choose to reflect on the importance of that two-hour engine change to allow Ricciardo to get out of the garage for qualifying with less than four minutes left of the session.

Ricciardo had blown his turbo in Free Practice Three on Friday morning.

 

Following the highly publicised and race deciding pit lane incident involving Kimi Raikkonen at the Bahrain GP, there has been much debate about whether a change in the pit stop process is needed or whether it’s all part and parcel of F1.

The Ferrari stop had the worst result of the four blunders so far this year after the mechanic was left with a broken leg however, Ferrari were fined in practice for releasing Raikkonen with one of the wheels cross-threaded, something that also ruined both Haas drivers’ races in Australia. These four were all classed as unsafe releases and were caused by the automatic lighting system going green when the car was in fact not ready for release.

Problems like this are inevitable given that the modern day pitstops usually last between two and three seconds, with the record being just 1.923s by Red Bull. Before we delve into the problems of F1 in the present, let’s look back at the evolution of pitstops and accidents that have come about along the way.

The pitstop is something that has nearly always been present in F1, its view is to spice up the racing by adding another element of strategy and teamwork, allowing a car to overtake by under or over-cutting the car in front. Back in the 1950s when F1 was in its infancy, a pitstop was expected to last between sixty and seventy seconds depending on how much fuel was needed. When refuelling was banned in 1984, pitstop times plummeted as only the tyres now needed changing but, the drivers were forced to conserve fuel and the racing suffered as a result.

Ten years later in 1994, refuelling was reinstated which pushed pitstop times back up but made the racing more captivating and improved viewing figures. Throughout the 2000s, pitstops lasted between six and twelve seconds, again depending on the amount of fuel needed by the car before refuelling was banned for the final time, to date, in 2010. There was talk of bringing it back for 2017 but that idea was soon rejected, leaving pitstops to fall to an average of two to three seconds.

Times have fallen for a number of reasons; refuelling is obviously the biggest changer, in addition to this, the number of people working on the car has increased massively to around 21 while automated systems aim to cut out as much human reaction time as possible.

This development is all well and good, very short pitstops mean that any mistakes are amplified when the cars return to track with many races being won or lost solely by the activities of the pit lane. However, the road to these ‘blink and you miss it’ pitstops has been, and continues to be, a very bumpy one which has been littered with various pit lane accidents and mishaps.

Probably the most infamous of these happened when refuelling had just been re-introduced back in 1994. If you haven’t guessed already, this was when Jos Verstappen’s Benetton went up in flames during his pitstop at Hockenheim. The car was refuelled as normal but as the fuel hose was removed, around three litres of fuel escaped, covering the car and crew in flammable liquid which was then set alight by the hot brake discs. Thankfully, everyone escaped relatively uninjured but it was a stark reminder of just how dangerous pitstops can be.

During the 2000s, there were various incidents of drivers taking out members of the pit crew either on entry or exit of the pit box. This happened at Brazil 2007 when Kazuki Nakajima took out most his crew on his very first pitstop and again when Kamui Kobayashi hit four members of his crew in 2012. Romain Grosjean was another to do this when he locked up his brakes and hit his front jack-man during the 2015 Spanish GP.

There were two very infamous incidents of drivers leaving with the fuel rig attached in 2008 and again in 2009 with Felipe Massa at Singapore and Heikki Kovalainen at Brazil, the latter of which caused a small fire in the pit lane and on the car behind, Raikkonen. These, along with other incidents, amounted to refuelling being banned once more in 2010.

In more recent memory, there have been occurrences of drivers leaving the pit box with wheels not attached, either at all or not properly. Mark Webber did this in 2013 at the Nurburgring when his loose wheel bounced down the pit lane and hit a cameraman, leaving him with a broken shoulder and cracked ribs.

At Melbourne 2018, both Haas cars left the pit lane with cross-threaded wheel nuts, ending both their races shortly after. The FIA handed out a 5,000 Euro fine for each incident to the American team but that was nothing compared to what Ferrari received for the next incident.

Raikkonen had come in for his second stop at the Bahrain GP when one of his rear tyres failed to come off. The automatic lighting, unbeknown to the mechanics still working on the car, showed green and Raikkonen left the pit box, hitting the mechanic stood in the path of the rear wheel. That mechanic, Francesco Cigorini, suffered a broken leg while Ferrari were handed a hefty 50,000 Euro fine.

All of this has drawn scrutiny on the current pitstop procedure, they are so fast that there’s no time to flag up and address errors before the car leaves in an unsafe condition. So, if change is needed, what are the possible solutions?

F1 could simplify the process by having less people working on each wheel, as seen in both Formula 2 and IndyCar. These both have just one mechanic to each wheel and have a mechanic who signals to the driver when the car is ready to leave, meaning that unsafe releases are much less common or though do still happen.

Another solution would be to keep the pitstops as is but replace the automatic lighting system with a lollipop-man (or woman!) who can clearly see if the car is ready or not. This seems to be the most reasonable solution.

A much less popular one is that of a minimum pitstop time, as was present in Formula E. However, something like this would not be accepted by the F1 paddock as it just isn’t what F1 is.

On balance, the most appropriate next move for the FIA would be to ban the lighting system, which has caused problems for its whole duration in F1, and have it replaced by a lollipop-man. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen.

 

Featured image curtsey of RedbullContentpool

In Bahrain it was a case of another race, another unsafe pitstop as Kimi Raikkonen snapped Ferrari mechanic Francesco Cigarini’s leg.

Let’s be clear, this was not the fault of Raikkonen, nor really the Ferrari pit team, in the same way that the Haas crew shouldn’t be held entirely responsible for the strife of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen in Australia.

No, this was almost entirely down to the now normal traffic light system in place in every single F1 garage up and down the pit lane.

The system is red when tyres are off the car, but as soon as all four wheels are on at the end of the stop, it goes green. To a racing driver, that always means “floor it”.

It does not allow for a feel not being attached tightly enough. We’ve seen three such incidents this season alone, while there have been numerous other incidents in recent years.

Before wishing Cigarini well, Raikkonen explained:  “I go when the light is green. I don’t see what happens behind. Unfortunately, he got hurt but my job is to go when the light changes.”

Away from the pits and it was another steal of a victory for Sebastian Vettel after a fortunate success last time out in Australia.

Mercedes and Valtteri Bottas made their medium tyres last longer while Vettel struggled on soft tyres, after being asked to make them last almost 40 laps.

While Ferrari were faster on pure pace over the weekend, Mercedes’ cunning strategy put Vettel on his back foot and after ten laps of intense pressure, Bottas could not force last year’s runner up into a mistake.

Vettel held on brilliantly, and joined Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher in winning on their 200^th Grand Prix outing.

That’s the second time Ferrari have won when they shouldn’t have this season and it is something that they weren’t doing last year.

Despite that, Mercedes still look to have a pace advantage and but for bad luck, Lewis Hamilton would have at least one win from two races this season.

To round off, an honourable mention should go to Pierre Gasly and Toro Rosso.

Their performance changed the perception around Honda at a power-hungry circuit in one afternoon.

Gasly in particular was in scintillating form throughout the weekend, qualifying sixth as the best of the rest and starting fifth once Lewis Hamilton’s penalty was applied.

After a disappointing start in Melbourne, Red Bull’s junior team delivered on the promise shown in winter testing to cause further confusion in an already congested midfield.

A fantastic Bahrain Grand Prix, one of the best in the modern era as you just couldn’t take your eyes off it!

Driver Ratings for the Grand Prix, in finishing order.

Sebastian Vettel – 10

Exceptional from the four time champion, looking a bit behind in free practice to one to his team mate. This was one of his best wins, not only as a Ferrari driver but probably in his career. Storming pole lap and driving on ice skates for the majority of the Grand Prix. He managed to keep Bottas behind him and win, just! ‘Mamma Mia’

Valterri Bottas – 8

Bottas had a very good weekend, a few more laps and we would have heard the Finnish anthem you would expect. Steady pace by him and managed to out qualify his team mate Hamilton. Sadly, you would have expected Hamilton to have passed Vettel. He could of lined up a move to turn 3 with a better chance. Great performance but lacks a killers instinct.

Lewis Hamilton – 8

A recovery drive that most expected by the reigning World Champion, most highlighted for that stunning treble overtake into Turn 1 with sparks flying in the midnight sky. Kept his nose clean at the start as others collided at the start. Through retirements of others at the front he got on the podium. He could of made Sunday easier but had a very poor Saturday finishing Q3 in 4th. With Ferrari showing great pace all weekend nearly best he could of done.

Pierre Gasly – 10
**DRIVER OF THE DAY**

From a man who qualified last at Australia and an early retirement, a weekend he would want to forget to one he will never forget. Took advantage of retirements to finish so high up, but still best of the rest. His flying lap in qualifying was near perfect. He started on clean side of the grid, passed Ricciardo into Turn 1 and kept the rest at bay. Brilliant. He finished 10 seconds clear of Hulkenberg, Magnussen and Alonso, unexpected pace by Toro Rosso, with a HONDA engine. With Red Bull contracts up in air at the end of the season, Hello Helmut?

Kevin Magnussen – 8

Haas got their tyres on cars with solid times in the pits, a change from a fortnight ago. K-Mag gave the team the reward for their success. Good weekend for him, out qualified team mate Grosjean and on a different strategy to most, got a points finish.

Nico Hulkenburg – 8

Hulkenburg doing a Hulkenburg, a quiet a weekend but nothing out of the ordinary by the German. A points finish which give Renault something to build on after a solid weekend in Melbourne.

Fernando Alonso – 9

The despair of Saturday to the delight of Sunday, the Mclaren team was left red faced in being out qualified by Toro Rosso Honda. Alonso being the racer he is stormed through the field, finishing 7th from an original starting place of 13th. Once more is the car holding him back?

Stoffel Vandoorne – 7

The Belgian scores again, but once more in the shadow of his team mate. Scored in both rounds but only a matter of time before critics come out more about if he is the right man in the seat.

Marcus Ericcson – 9

Points?! The Swede scores points 50 Grand Prix after his last haul in 2015, at the Italian Grand Prix. He tried something different, a one stop, whilst others squabbled holding each other up he kept just chipping away. Pace was horrible due to tyres well past their best at the end but much like Vettel kept it together as a true racer can. Showed his rookie team mate the much improved potential of the Sauber Team with Alfa Romeo backing.

Estaban Ocon – 7

Battling with others throughout the entire race gave the Frenchman the final points of the Bahrain Grand Prix. He got the best of some talented drivers but didn’t manage to assert himself by pulling away.

Carlos Sainz – 6

Carlos was stuck between the majority of the battle for the small points of the race. Force India managed to just managed to get the Spaniard for the last points.

Charles Leclerc – 7

More mileage in the car for Leclerc, and a track that he knows compared to Melbourne. He did in Formula 2 one of the most amazing returns to win last year, and kept on the speed transferring it onto the F1 grid.

Romain Grosjean – 6

A race which will be forgotten for the Frenchman, the highlight of the race was his stupidity at holding his team mate up and nearly causing a collision at turn 2. Restricted pace due to sidepod damage early in the race. Not his day.

Lance Stroll – 6

The Williams driver was nowhere in qualifying, he started 20th, but managed to finish above others. Lance kept his nose clean early on and got the advantage through collisions.

Sergey Sirotkin – 6

The Russian had a quiet race, finished the grand prix. More mileage for the rookie to hopefully build experience for tracks he has been too before later in the season.

Sergio Perez – 6

Being hit from behind at turn 3 on the opening lap ruined any chance of a decent finish for the Mexican. He kept the car going if anyone faltered but after early retirements no one else retired.

Brendon Hartley – 6

The Kiwi is still getting to grips with open wheel racing after racing so long in Endurance racing. A silly error on the opening lap resulted in a penalty which put him on the back foot for the race.

Kimi Raikkonen – 7

The Ferrari driver did well in practice being quicker than his team mate. When it came to qualifying when it mattered he was caught out to P2. Bottas jumped him at the start and never got close to him again, the pit stop error caused a retirement. Best Wishes and speedy recovery for mechanic, Kimi did nothing wrong.

Max Verstappen – 5

Erratic from the Dutchman all weekend, struggled to keep his car on track regardless of the sudden power increase in qualifying resulting in the crash. He was the one most ran wide in practice trying to find the limits. He got past Hamilton well, but there was no need to open up the steering, which resulted in the contact causing a puncture and differential damage. Bad day at the office, I wouldn’t go as far as what Hamilton called him.

Daniel Ricciardo – 8

He looked up for it all weekend but the car when it mattered let him down. Was very close up to the front in qualifying which Red Bull since the beginning of the hybrid era have struggled the most. He managed to retake Gasly after a poor start but an electrical failure ended his day early in a few horrible minutes of the Austrian team.

With the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend ahead questions are beginning to be discussed, more coming to light than others, I’d say the major one is Honda, have Mclaren made another mistake? Heavily power focused in sector 3 at China, we’ll see.