Even Ross Brawn doesn't know how Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix might unfold

Mercedes Team Principal Ross Brawn says Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix will likely prove a "very complex" affair given the different race strategies on offer to the field.

Qualifying at the Shanghai International Circuit showed just how much teams are needing to have their wiles about them this weekend, with the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button lapping on the medium Pirelli tyre during the final session whilst all the other frontrunners opted for the much faster, but far more brittle, soft compound.
The latter seem set to make only a fleeting appearance on Sunday, with the likes of Brawn's own drivers, polesitter Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, who lines up fourth, appearing destined to pit during the first few laps.

That will probably clear the way for the likes of Button, but he will be forced on to softs later on. Vettel, meanwhile, heads those with a free tyre choice after failing to set a time during Q3.

Factor in such variables as an evolving track, a warmer weather forecast and the possibility - albeit one that sounds unlikely - of running a two-stop race, and what emerges is a conundrum that even master tactician Brawn is approaching with caution.

"I think it's going to be a very complex race tomorrow," he said on Saturday. "We don't really know what we've got. The work we've done on Friday and today obviously helps a lot to try and understand what we've got to do but it'll open up in one direction or another.

"The option has a pretty short life. I think we'll be on primes for the main part of the race and we've got two very strong competitors in the top ten, maybe three with (tenth-placed Nico) Hulkenberg starting on the prime, and they're going to be leading the race for a while.

"It's going to start to evolve from there. It's going to be a very interesting race and of course those of us on the soft tyre will drop back into groups and we'll be picking holes in the traffic and all that type of thing.

"I think it's going to be a really great race tomorrow. It's one which we need to be completely on top of - we know what we need to do - and even on the prime tyre you can't go flat-out for 20 laps - you've got to manage the situation as well."