Both Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel broke Michael Schumacher’s 2004 Shanghai International Circuit lap record back to back. Here’s the side by side.
Ferrari just flexed on Mercedes as well as all the other Formula 1 teams when both their drivers broke Shanghai International Circuit’s lap record earlier yesterday (Apr. 4, 2018) Both their cars setups where so dialed in and their driving styles pushed to the max that their onboard laps looked surprisingly similar. I’ve come across this stellar side by side video showing their pole laps. With .083 seconds separating the two, the sound of their power units and their movements strangely sync well. Check out that video below!
According to the official pole results thanks to Ferrari, there’s more than a half a second difference between Vettel and Mercedes’s first finisher in third, Valtteri Bottas. Vettel clocked a 1:31.095 with his teammate Kimi right behind him at 1:31.182 and Valtteri Bottas in a distant third with 1:31.625.
And since Kimi Raikkonen finished his hot lap before Sebastian Vettel, for the briefest moment, Kimi had the lap record before Vettel.
Here’s what Vettel and Raikkonen had to say about their car’s,
Seb; “The car was amazing”. Kimi: “We’ve been pretty consistent”
You have to love that short summary from Kimi.
In regards to how the car was feeling, Vettel felt really happy about the SF71H’s performance.
Today the car was amazing and it was great fighting for the front row with both cars on our own. It was very windy and not easy to get the right feeling. However, when the car is quick and works, you get a lot of confidence and that helps.
And even though Seb nipped Kimi at the line, it surprised me to learn that Kimi could’ve gone even faster besting his Seb.
Qualifying today was pretty close; we had two good laps, but unfortunately I lost some speed in the last sector and couldn’t improve. Obviously I wanted more, but tomorrow is another day.
In the video description on the one I posted above, the uploader does mention that Kimi didn’t have his DRS enabled on the main stretch so that can explain the time differential between the two.
This circuit’s lap record used to be held by Michael Schumacher coincidentally in his Ferrari back in 2004. It’s noteworthy that this was the age of close to 1,000 HP and V10 engines. While today’s V6 turbos make around the same power, they’re doing it with close to half the displacement.
This is the first time Ferrari has had back to back poles, locking up both first and second, since 2004.
They’ll surely be just as fast if not faster for the race.
