[NoSkillz]

RACE THREE: Chinese Grand Prix, Beijing (April 14, 2019)

Track Layout A
Track Guide – Top Speed, Deceleration and Low Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (Low), Tyre Wear (Medium)
Laps - 54 (2.73 miles each)
Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Mediums, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Mostly Sunny); Qualifying (Rain); Race Day (Partly Cloudy)

Our cars, as usual, took a bit of a beating in the race and will need about a days work to get back on track. A new front wing is completed just after the completion of the race in Dubai and I get our engineers working on building a new engine next.

The pundits once again are backing Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes, while saying Dubai race winner Sebastian Vettel will struggle in Beijing in the Ferrari. Somehow I doubt that! There is even a brief snippet about Racing Point, with prognosticators saying we’re destined to struggle this week as well.

There is a 40% chance of rain on race day and it looks like we’ll be dealing with rain during qualifying as well. We’ll stick with the same tyre setup as last week, going with seven SuperSofts, 4 Softs and 4 Mediums for the weekend.

It’s do or die time for Sergio Perez – I’ve given him the better car in the first two races and he hasn’t been able to do anything with it. I’m giving him one more chance to impress and if he can’t secure some points, I’m going to switch our best parts over to Stroll.

PRACTICE –

We have rain early in the practice session, which gives us a chance to build our Intermediate tyre knowledge for a possible wet track on race day. In the end, we are able to secure Level Three knowledge for Qualifying Trim, Race Trim, Intermediate Tyres and SuperSofts, while also securing Level Two knowledge on Soft Tyres. Fantastic!

Perez tears up the track in his last practice run and sets the fastest time in the field, while Stroll also runs well in practice, setting an 8th place time. Excellent stuff! We have no trouble getting Perez’ car dialed in to a 99% optimum balance while we struggle somewhat with Stroll’s speed balance, only securing a “Great” rating and 97% overall balance.

QUALIFYING –

It looks like we have rain in the forecast for the entire qualifying session so we’ll be on inters here. I utilize the 15% performance boosts given for Inters and for Qualifying trip, as you’d expect. I’m going to take a chance in Q1 and wait for the heavy rain to stop before going out, which will give us only one potential time in the session. It works to PERFECTION, as Perez crosses the line with the top Q1 qualifying time and Stroll comes in 3rd. Amazing! Charles Leclerc from Ferrari is second in Q1. Even more amazing are the names of racers who don’t make it into Q2: Lewis Hamilton (16th), Max Verstappen (19th) and Sebastian Vettel, who pundits predicted would struggle on this track, finishes dead last in Q1 and all are eliminated from further qualifying. WOW!

Things have completely dried out for Q2 so we’ll be heading out on SuperSofts. We don’t race as well in good weather and Perez sets the 10th fastest time while Stroll is 12th on the first lap. We get them both on a fresh set of slicks and send them out once more in an attempt to better their positions. Unfortunately, both put in worse performances on the second timed lap and ultimately, Perez finishes 11th and Stroll 13th, eliminating both of our racers from further qualifying. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo has the fastest Q2 time, followed by Romain Grosjean from Haas and Carlos Sainz from McLaren.

Ricciardo continues his good form in Q3 and wins the pole for the race tomorrow. Charles Leclerc joins him on the front row and Valtteri Bottas is in third.

THE RACE –

It’s raining to start the race and it looks like it’s going to be a wet one almost the whole way through. I’m guessing we’ll need to go to actual wets at a couple points during the race, as it looks like the middle laps especially will be under monsoon conditions. This should set up reasonably well for us, slowing everyone down to our speed.

Both drivers will start on inters and we’ll make at least two pit stops in the race but I’d guess three might be necessary.

We get off to a slow start but on lap two, there is a crash between Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean and both are out of the race. On lap four, both Stroll and Perez make big moves and move into the middle of the field in 9th and 8th place respectively. On lap 7, we pit for Wet Tyres and upon re-entering from the pits, we get Perez up to 3rd and Stroll up to 4th after utilizing their ERS boosts.

By lap 13, Perez and Stroll are comfortably in 3rd and 5th respectively and just coasting along on their wets, with Daniel Ricciardo still in good form and leading the race. Max Verstappen crashes and is out, eliminating yet another big threat.

We have to pit again on lap 17, one lap after all the other racers, as the track has dried up to the point where the wets aren’t working as well and we need inters again. Both pit stops go well and we load up on more ERS and re-enter proceedings in 4th with Perez and 7th with Stroll. We’re back on wets AGAIN by lap 24, with Perez moving up to 3rd and Stroll up to 6th. We really seem to be managing this race well so far.

We have another crash on lap 37, with Nico Hulkenberg bowing out of the race. The rain has stopped by this point but we still have a wet track, with Perez now up in third by over seven seconds and Stroll comfortably in 7th. Both are now on inters and it looks like we’ll have a shootout of a finish at the end on a dry track.

With about 10 laps to go, the track dries out and we go onto slicks and Perez continues to hold on to third spot. Stroll starts having engine problems but we need to keep him out there. Unfortunately, his car starts failing on him with about three laps to go and he ultimately gets passed by four cars, finishing 12th.

However, Perez holds firm and crosses the line in 3rd place, a little over 14 seconds behind race winner Daniel Ricciardo, for Racing Point’s first ever podium finish!!!

Joining Ricciardo and Perez on the podium is Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who finished second. Lewis Hamilton finished behind Perez in fourth, just one second further back.

It would have been great to get double points this weekend but we need to keep working on the reliability of our cars to ensure both Perez and Stroll can get across the finish line with parts intact. Still, a wonderful result for our team and Perez really ran a great race, as did Stroll, but Perez has the better technology at his disposal right now and took advantage.

Perez moves into seventh place in the Drivers Standings with his 15 points while Racing Point moves into sixth in the Constructors Standings, three points behind Haas.

April 14, 2019
Chinese Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 54 Laps, 25 Points
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 54 Laps, +2.195, 18 Points
3. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 54 Laps, +16.471, 15 Points
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4. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 54 Laps, +17.588, 12 Points
5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 54 Laps, +17.758, 10 Points
6. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 54 Laps, +21.535, 8 Points
7. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 54 Laps, +32.529, 6 Points
8. Robert Kubica, Williams, 54 Laps, +41.558, 4 Points
9. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 54 Laps, +50.726, 2 Points
10. Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, 54 Laps, +54.079, 1 Point

12. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 54 Laps, +59.766, 0 Points