2009 Chinese Grand Prix

Just in case you were wondering, Formula 1 cars look really strange lacking the rear wing. But I guess that sort of thing happens when one car attempts to go up and over another one from the back...

And Mr. Buemi if your collision with Vettel puts him out of the race, I'm gonna be pissed.

Sebastian Vettel takes the pole (Vettel's first for the season, and first Red Bull Racing pole ever). Last year he got his first pole ever, and Scuderia Toro Rosso's first pole ever in Italy, where he won in the wet. This race is in the wet as well. Let's see how this one goes.

(Oh, and Buemi, the Swiss rookie seems to be doing pretty well (aside from almost running into Vettel's rear). Currently running in 8th about halfway through the race, after the Safety Car period. Was up a bit higher earlier.

And now for a few updates from the other folks we care about..

Kubica qualified pretty poorly, and then had his poor position exacerbated by running into Jarno Trulli's rear (Kubica's car was the one I discussed earlier trying to go up and over Trulli's) Took Trulli's rear wing off, and put him out of the race. Kubica lost his front wing, but he was able to replace it. We'll see how he's currently running when the show the graphic again. Currently running in 13th...

Kimi was running pretty close to the top, but apparently his engine's having some performance issues. He's currently 10th. Lets see if he can pick up to positions to earn Ferarri their first points of the season. Massa's out with some sort of mechanical problem, so it's all up to Kimi.

And from the "Things which are not surprising in the slightest" file: Both Nakajima and Piquet are both sucking it up, going off track left and right, and hitting the occasional thing...

Some good racing though. Webber and Button are battling it out for 2nd. You might remember that Button is the one who picked up the first two poles of the season, as well as the first two wins. At the time that I'm writing this, Webber seems to have 2nd. But in the time that I've been typing this paragraph, the position has changed 5 or 6 times.

Well, it looks like Webber won that battle. Now there's an interesting battle between Vettel (now 3rd due to his pit stop), and Button (now 2nd). Well, now its actually between 1st and 2nd, now that Webber has had to pit. And now Vettel seems to have taken 1st. Although Button may pit, just to change to intermediate tires (as opposed to the full wet tires) to see if he can get some additional performance for the closing laps.

Williams seems to have made the switch over to inters. But that point is moot, because Button just pitted and put on another set of full wets. Which gives Vettel a 15 second lead over Webber with 13 laps to go... And apparently its still a little too wet for the intermediate tires at this point, as Williams seems to have some issues with their cars.

And now another opportunity for Force India to pick up their first points as a team (ever, I think) lost, as one of their cars goes wrong in the wet (granted, last year, it was Raikkonnen running into the rear of the other car after his front wing failed)

And a 1-2 Finish for Red Bull, and 3-4 for Brawn. So, hopefully, that means that Webber can contend for the championship as the season progresses (especially given the fact that he didn't finish the first 2 races of the season)

Oh, and Buemi finished in 8th (just inside the points), and Raikkonnen finished in 10 (still no points for Ferarri for the season)