Shanghai, 13 April

There was a time in the past when the cliché about tyres in Formula 1 was that they were round and black, not very interesting and everyone had the same ones. In the modern era, only the first and last of those statements holds true and this afternoon’s qualifying for Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix was more about tyre management than outright performance.

Usually in Q1, it is the back-of-the-grid habitués who opt to run the softer tyre immediately as they try and make it to Q2, but here in Shanghai, the lap time difference between the Prime Medium and the Option Soft, provided by Pirelli, was so great that even the front runners had to come out on the Softs in Q1. Fernando and Felipe duly got through to Q2 without any problems and then dealt with the second part to make it to the top ten where, of the usual front runners, Mark Webber was missing, because of a technical problem on his Red Bull.

What is usually regarded as a Top Ten shoot-out was actually a Top-Seven today, with the remaining drivers waiting until a few minutes from the end to make just one run on the Softs. The two Ferrari men played their part, with the Spaniard setting the third fastest time just three tenths off pole man Lewis Hamilton, the Englishman securing his first ever number one slot for Mercedes. In the other F138, Felipe will start right behind his team-mate after being fifth fastest. Australian GP winner Kimi Raikkonen is also on the front row, while Fernando shares row 2 with last year’s winner here, Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes. Felipe has the Lotus of Romain Grosjean alongside him on row 3. In seventh place, Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso was the last driver to actually attempt a quick lap: Jenson Button in the McLaren, Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull and Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber, all played the tactical game for tomorrow of fitting the Medium tyres, and ended up eighth, ninth and tenth respectively, as Hulkenberg didn’t even leave the garage.

What this means for tomorrow’s 56 laps of the Shanghai International Circuit is hard to say. Clearly the seven cars at the front of the grid that must according to the regulations, start on the Softs, will have to pit fairly early on while apart from the possibility of a few wild cards, those outside the top ten who are free to choose their starting tyres, will presumably go for the Mediums. Choosing the best time to make tyre changes on an afternoon where at least the weather is expected to be consistently dry, is going to be a tough call and one that will see engineers throughout the length of the very long Shanghai paddock, scratching their heads well into the night. Apart from working hard to get that part of the equation right, the Scuderia Ferrari crew can take heart from the fact the F138 has shown a good pace over a long run here in China. From third and fifth on the grid, if everything goes smoothly on all the usual fronts of reliability, performance and pit stops, then the podium has to be a realistic target, especially for Fernando but also for Felipe.