Thrilling weekend predicts Pirelli

Following the slightly dull Australian Grand Prix, came the slightly confusing Malaysian Grand Prix, so what is in store in China?

In Australia, none of the new additions to Formula One this season had much of an impact, KERS certainly didn't with Vettel leaving everyone in his dust despite not even running it, the DRS was ran on such a short straight it had little affect, while the supposedly high degradating Pirelli tyres showed little difference to Bridgestone's with Sauber's Perez completing a one-stop strategy.

In Malaysia we had the opposite, with some claiming that all the action was confusing, the lack of KERS for Red Bull's Mark Webber was obvious as he worked his way backwards during the early stages of the race, while others capitalised on his pace with their KERS.

The DRS created lots of overtaking manoeuvres down the main-straight, while the tyres had an impact on strategy with cars completing three and four stops during the race, whilst drivers complained of 'marbles' [lumps of discarded rubber] making going off the racing line difficult.

So what is in store for China? Well by the sounds of things, we may well have a mixture of both.

“We’ve been very encouraged by our first day of running in China, which like nearly every one of the circuits this year is entirely new to us. Although today has been warm, degradation is a lot less than we saw in Malaysia, so I’m expecting to have two pit stops per car on race day, similar to Australia.' Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery told formula1.com.

'We’ve also seen a lot fewer ‘marbles’ - deposits of rubber, with the shape and consistency of toffee, left by the tyres on the track as they degrade - and that should be the case during the race too as we are expecting fewer pit stops in the normal course of events. In terms of wear rate, there’s a good five to six lap difference between the soft and the hard, which opens up various different possibilities in terms of strategy. The weather seems uncertain tomorrow, which is sure to add another level of intrigue to what is already shaping up to be a thrilling weekend.”

The weather seems to be the only thing uncertain about tomorrow, with Red Bull looking very quick and likely to take the front row ahead of McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault.