Shanghai GP - just gets better and better!

First lap - jump start from Alonso.  'Not had one of those in a while', was my thought  looking as Alonso leapt past the Red Bulls from 3rd on the grid and then Martin said he had seen it.  So it's a stop and go for him.  Then we had a crash at the back which resulted in the safety car and it was spitting/more with rain so most leapt into pits to put on intermediates.

Lap 4+ - Rosberg and Button didn't pit and stayed on slicks.  Hamilton had a late call for pits and only just made it in to the pit lane.  For a lap the inters looked like they had the best grip but as the deluge didn't appear, the inters gave up and so all those that had pitted had to pit again back to slicks.  Hamilton and Vettel seemed to be released from their stops at exactly the same time and were going down the pit lane side by side.  Surely a controversy that will run.

Lap 11 - So, it's Rosberg ... easier to screen shot!

Lap 13 - Sutil has dropped down the order - Hamilton overtaking him and Vettel in one hairpin.  Hami now on a purple charge to get to Schumacher.

Lap 17 - after 'nose to nose' racing for 3 laps, Hamilton got him in slightly unconventional means at the hairpin.

Lap 19 - Button gets past Rosberg for the lead seemingly from nowhere.  Oh, Rosberg has slipped off and it appears to be raining again and the dive for the pits commences!

Lap 20 - finally Ham and Vettel pit - and net lose a place to Weber for the lap delay.  Martin: 'it's clearly raining slightly harder than before, but it's not looking wet'.

Lap 22 - safety car out - why's that?

Lap 23 - replays show Alonso overtaking Massa on the pitlane entry - cheeky cheeky!  Seems like the safety car is out to allow Alguesuari's nose to be picked up.  Can it really be his as he seemed to lose it in the pit lane...

This is a top race, but computer has started buffering!!!!!  perhaps time to head downstairs...
comp said it lost internet connection so after 2 refreshes i grabbed dressing gown, phone and laptop and i'm in the living room now!

Lap 25 - eek, Button backed them up too much for the restart - all sorts of chaos!  Can definitely see the wet now.  Plumes of spray.  Mark Weber has said that Hamilton pushed him off in the restart.  Seriously not a good one for Hamilton.  It's the story of his season really - great racing (he just passed Schuey again) but full of controversy!

Lap 28 - "They all seem out of control and completely unruly today"  As always, Martin Brundle sums it up so well!!  This record could just be a transcript of his commentary!  Martin's view is that Button has broken the rules.

Lap 30/56 - we haven't had a boring lap yet and I have just modified the post title!  btw, internet is back now but am relatively happy down here!

Lap 31 - bizarre, the safety car line is before the last corner so they are able to overtake then... perhaps Hamilton is ok for that little bit!

Lap 38 - after several laps on the tail of Rosberg, Hamilton pits for new inters.  Ooh, the strategy is just so good and interesting!

Lap 39 - It's a McLaren 1-2 at the moment with both of them having pitted :-) 

Lap 42 - ok, so it's slightly subdued racing now but I am entertaining myself by colour coding the post!  What colour for Hamilton?  That was the colour I chose initially but am coming to on again to change as too hard to read.  How about Hamilton?

Lap 52 - Button takes a little excursion across the grass reducing his lead over Hamilton from 9 seconds to 5.  It's going to be a tentative last 4 laps as everyone's tires are gone!

That's it!  A great race but I wonder if they'll be repercussions from the incidents afterwards.

Another note - due to the volcano ash cloud (probs should get it's own post, if not, see photos of the week - though don't get excited - don't actually have a photo of the cloud!) the teams don't know when they will be leaving China.  And Bernie was joking about not making it to Spain in 3 weeks time and having the rest of the season in China!  Eddie Jordan didn't make it out to China before the no fly zone so he was adding his 2cents from a London studio.