Good weekend, bad weekend

The Chinese Grand Prix was a GOOD weekend for...

Jenson Button

Did anyone – even Button himself – honestly ever imagine that after four races of 2010, Jenson would have two wins and the championship lead, and Lewis Hamilton would have won zero races and been out-qualified by his new team-mate three straight times? Hamilton's driving has been incredible at times this year, but he's making hard work for himself too often, whereas Button’s pace is similar and sometimes quicker, and he is sailing serenely on with consistent driving, great judgement and impressive maturity. A decade into his F1 career and with a world title under his belt, it seems Button is getting better and better.


Vitaly Petrov

Okay, so he's not as quick as Robert Kubica at the moment, but would anyone be in Petrov's position – bearing in mind the experience gulf between them and Kubica's already-established status as superstar underdog of the year? Petrov's solid run in fourth and great recovery to seventh after spinning, which saw him conjure much more speed on destroyed tyres than the big names were managing, suggests those who insisted he was an under-rated rough diamond rather than a wealthy seat-filler are going to be vindicated.


Nico Rosberg

For all the post-race smiles, Rosberg must be frustrated that he let the lead slip away. But there was still plenty to be proud of: He out-qualified the McLarens in a car most would agree is slower, made the right tyre choices and was pulling away from Button on slicks in the wet, which is quite a tall order. Plus he blew away the famous guy in the other Mercedes by the most comprehensive margin yet.


But the Chinese Grand Prix was a BAD weekend for...

F1 teams' logistics departments and F1 personnel's families

While the teams were setting up in China, a volcano in Iceland decided to make life very difficult for anyone needing to travel into, across or out of Europe. And by the time the race was over, the F1 paddock was resigned to a nightmare journey home and pondering whether to try convoluted routes via Malaysia, New York or even a Russian train, or whether it was better to sit tight in China for now. Will some of them even make it back to the UK before Barcelona? As for the drivers, most seem to be going on holiday in Asia instead...


Anyone who thought Red Bull was cheating

The theory was that, despite its vehement denials, Red Bull must be running some form of dodgy ride height adjusting system in qualifying. The FIA's newly clarified hard line on such devices would force Red Bull to remove its trick parts and its qualifying edge would be a thing of the past, its rivals hoped. Then Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber blitzed the front row again... "Who needs ride height control, eh?" said a jubilant Christian Horner over the radio to Vettel. Point made.


Sebastien Buemi

“How annoying,” thought Buemi as he sat in the pits for much of Friday morning watching his mechanics fix a leak on his Toro Rosso, “yet another technical problem costing me practice mileage, what an inconvenient start to the weekend.” Then when he did get out, an upright failure caused both sides of his front suspension to shatter at high speed as he tried to brake from 200mph for the hairpin, sending his now rear-wheels-only car sledging helplessly into the barriers while he instinctively tried to steer out of trouble before remembering he had no front wheels. Then he got taken out on lap one by Tonio Liuzzi spinning into the side of him, meaning he never got chance to use the wet set-up that had compromised his qualifying session. After all that, the Friday morning leak probably didn't seem so bad.