Holy wonton soup, Batman! The Formula 1 boys can't seem to escape the rain anymore! Those poor, water-logged folks in the stands sure got a fun show, though.
When I made my picks for the race a few days back, I wasn't quite aware that rain was in the forecast for Sunday in Shanghai. I figured Brawn GP would be all over it again, with their trick diffusers and their voodoo magic. I didn't quite count on F1's new Regenmeister Sebastian Vettel beating the snot out of everyone in Red Bull Racing's well-deserved first victory.
Now, I only call Vettel "Regenmeister" because both of his F1 victories came in awfully wet conditions (the first was last year in Monza). However, that doesn't mean he needs it to rain to take home a victory. In his first-ever F1 race, replacing an injured Robert Kubica for BMW-Sauber at Indianapolis in 2007, he took home points. Last year, he took a notoriously bad team (Toro Rosso, formerly Minardi) and made it one of the "best-of-the-rest" behind Ferrari and McLaren. This year, he has looked strong before some untimely accidents, but he put up a stunning pole position (in the dry, mind) at Shanghai.
This kid is easily the second coming of Michael Schumacher, except he actually seems to have a personality. He has brought maiden victories to two different F1 teams (Toro Rosso, and Red Bull) -- Jackie Stewart was the last driver to manage that one (Matra and Tyrrell). He was technically a BMW man on loan to the Red Bull teams, but it's entirely feasible that he end up with Red Bull exclusively. If Adrian Newey keeps making good cars, Vettel could easily go on to bigger and better things.
As for the race itself, it was kinda difficult to watch. Rain races are fun, but I never like seeing one right after the last one had to be stopped early for weather. Wet races are fun and can be a nice change, but they get old fast. We've hear all this great stuff about new aerodynamics and the trick diffusers (which, i neglected to mention, Red Bull did not have) and KERS and all this other stuff, but we haven't really gotten good looks at this stuff. The 1.1-kilometer straight at Shanghai would've been the perfect showcase for the new stuff.
Instead, there were crashes galore, electrical glitches, and total domination from Red Bull Racing. Good thing we're in a desert next week...I could use a break from the rain.
Result: Chinese Grand Prix
1. VETTEL Red Bull 1h57m43.49s
2. WEBBER Red Bull +11.0s
3. BUTTON Brawn +45.0s
4. BARRICHELLO Brawn +1m03.7s
5. KOVALAINEN McLaren +1m05.1s
6. HAMILTON McLaren +1m11.9s
7. GLOCK Toyota +1m14.5s
8. BUEMI Toro Rosso +1m16.4s
9. ALONSO Renault +1m24.3s
10. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +1m31.8s
11. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +1m34.2s
12. HEIDFELD BMW +1m35.8s
13. KUBICA BMW +1m46.9s
14. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap
15. ROSBERG Williams +1 lap
16. PIQUET Renault +2 laps
R. SUTIL Force India +6 laps
R. NAKAJIMA Williams +13 laps
R. MASSA Ferrari +36 laps
R. TRULLI Toyota +38 laps
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