That was, er… dull

Lewis Hamilton is as close as he was last season to becoming world champion with one race to go, after a routine victory in China. He leads Felipe Massa by seven points with only the Brazilian GP left to run, in two weeks’ time. Job almost done, you might think, but Lewis threw away exactly the same lead at the same stage in 2007, so it’s not over yet. And although Lewis won, it won’t make Brazil any less nailbiting.

If you got up early on Sunday morning to watch the race live, you have our commiserations - Shanghai served up a monumentally dull procession, albeit with a very good result for McLaren fans. Jackie Stewart, who is rooting for Lewis, called it “boringly good”, which sums it up nicely.

Ferrari, who never looked like matching Hamilton’s relentless pace, can take comfort in a good haul of points. The Italian team now has an 11-point lead over McLaren, and they are nailed-on to win the constructors’ championship - especially with Heikki Kovalainen driving so erratically.

More on China tomorrow on Gridcrasher. For now, check out some photos from the race weekend, after the jump…

Chinese GP, Sunday, 8am, ITV1, Free £10 bet here

The common consensus is that Lewis Hamilton is well on his way to spectacularly missing out on the Drivers Championship from a position of control for the second year running. Last year, he suffered his first Formula One retirement in China and many expect another Shanghai nightmare on Sunday. However, the folks at chickendinner have uncovered statistics that suggest the opposite may occur…

» Hamilton’s performances on tracks he won at last season - Canada, Hungary and Japan - have deteriorated but he has improved his performances at the three races where he missed out on a podium finish last year - Europe, Turkey and Belgium - which bodes well for him in China and Brazil:

(It should be noted that the two European races were held at different tracks - Nurburgring and Valencia.)

Even more impressively, Hamilton actually won in Belgium only to be demoted by the stewards, so he has improved notably in all three of his biggest flops last season that he has had the chance to rectify.

» Expect to see Kubica on the podium again though - he’s followed up his two previous second-placed finishes this season with a victory and a third-placed finish.

» Raikkonen is on a run of twelve races

Note to Lewis: now’s the time to be conservative

No F1 driver is harder on his tyres than Lewis Hamilton. He’s an aggressive, rough driver - in direct contrast with a classically “smooth” driver like Alain Prost - whose style was forged in his days as a precocious young karter.

Lewis has already had several tyre issues this season, and we remember back to Turkey this season, when McLaren put him on a three-stop strategy - because the team was worried that his driving style would result in a puncture on his front-right tyre.

Shanghai is tougher than most circuits on tyres. It features several long, demanding corners. We all saw what happened to Hamilton’s tyres last year in China, when they were so shot that he couldn’t make it into the pit lane - you could argue that his intense driving style cost him the world title.

Lewis sets pace in Shanghai

So far so good for Lewis Hamilton, who set the fastest time - by some distance - in both practice sessions today in China. He was the only driver to dip below the 1:36.00 mark, which he did with some ease.

Lewis looks calm and collected in Shanghai, but then he had the same demeanour before the Japanese Grand Prix, and that went to shits as soon as the red lights at the start went out.

Timesheets below, as well as some more photos from practice:

Our chums at Red Bulletin look ahead to the weekend

Lewis admits watching video of Shanghai 2007

Lewis Hamilton has admitted watching his Chinese GP gaffe (see above - it comes with excited Spanish commentary, for bonus schadenfreude points) on the internet.

Hamilton claims he is not haunted by the nightmare incident, which shattered his world-title hopes last season, but he has watched it on YouTube, more than once:

“Sometimes I’ve been on YouTube and seen a video clip or a picture of me in the gravel last year and thought, ‘Damn! That shouldn’t have happened’.

“But it was a learning mistake and I can still move forwards from it because things like that happen for a reason and it taught me a lot. Last year the last couple of races taught me a lot about my personality and my life, and I’m stronger for it.”

[Daily Mail]

Should you ever find yourself in an F1 car at Shanghai, you might wish you’d watched this video…

Chinese GP, 2006: Tiago Monteiro (remember him?), driving a not-very-good Spyker, shows you how to negotiate Shanghai’s wide range of technical corners. Not much scenery to look at though.