Herausforderungen » game, often leaving Miami in third-and-long situatio

Nico Rosberg serenely marches on. All the historical stats point to him becoming world champion this year although, as he says, those stats dont include having Lewis Hamilton around.Twice on Sky F1 at the weekend he described Lewis as the benchmark. Interesting psychology - praise your rival while youre winning to further enhance your position, like the boxer who threatens to knock him out in the third, does so, and then hugs his bloody face and praises him as a most worthy rival? Or does he still mentally feel hes second best?Nico is a smart boy and he knows through painful experience that it could easily have been his car which failed in qualifying, and the championship could be now neck and neck. He also knows Lewis will not give up and has peerless speed when required. I believe its just his way of managing down the pressure and expectation in a tidal wave of questions so early in the season. Nico Rosberg comfortably won his sixth consecutive race; Sebastian Vettel and Daniil Kvyat completed the podium He will also want to beat Lewis to the title, if it happens, in a straight fight with wheel-to-wheel combat and making key overtakes stick.Thankfully for us, now they cant just focus on each other in this fight. When Ferrari stop treading on their own tails with reliability issues and contact, they will be in the race fight too and fully capable of taking points off a Mercedes driver or drivers having a bad day.A difficult afternoon no longer means a guaranteed 18 points for Rosberg or Hamilton for second place.And coming up on the rails fast is Red Bull; they could be serious race contenders in the second half of the season on certain tracks. Wolff: Nico not the favourite Mercedes boss predicts Lewis Hamilton will close the gap The first lap in Shanghai was very wild, with multiple contacts. With both Ferraris sliding a little wide, I thought Daniil Kvyat was fully within his rights to seize the opportunity in the space up the inside of Sebastian Vettel.He didnt hit the Ferrari - indeed, Vettel spun his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen around such that he actually made contact with Kvyat. From on-board Vettels car, it looked as if there was not much he could have done in the space and timeframe, and contact was made.Vettels brain was thereafter engaged fully. In front of fearsome team boss Sergio Marchionne, he had just damaged both cars, scarlet against scarlet. He set about rationalising and minimising that on the radio by deflecting everything at Kvyat. This whining would go into the post-race press conference, where he raised his voice as if on a West End stage but with a global audience to further shift the blame. A German verbally scrapping with a Russian in English.I thought Kvyat batted it all back perfectly and had every intention of enjoying a guilt-free, important-for-him, and well-deserved podium. Hamilton: Im out of jokers Lewis Hamilton admits he cannot afford another poor weekend in 2016 Seb calmed down a little after the race when describing it all as a racing incident, but he also had his brain engaged in the pits under the safety car as Nico Hulkenberg backed up Carlos Sainz, so as not to queue at his pits while they serviced his team-mate Sergio Perez. In a flash, Vettel passed the pair of them in the narrow lane before the speed limit. I loved it, but I saw a couple of tweets asking why I was impressed - surely this was illegal and dangerous? The regulations specifically allow for overtaking between the two safety car lines on track either end of the pit straight zone, rather necessarily as cars stop at their pits.It was a little risky, rather like getting in an F1 car in the first place. Its a race, not a polite high-speed demonstration, as Kvyat reminded Vettel on the opening lap. Sebastian Vettel had words with Daniil Kvyat as they waited to head out to the podium Through all of that, Vettel drove a brilliant race for second place, surpassing Ayrton Sennas and matching Raikkonens record with 81 podiums. In fact, second and fifth for the Ferrari team was a major save.I felt for Daniel Ricciardo. Hes in such fine form and deserved better than a puncture while leading. There was so much debris around Im surprised we didnt have an earlier Safety Car and more punctures.The Aussie drove a stormer, which he described as one of the best of his career, fourth was some kind of reward except for his team-mate drinking the champagne.Once again, the third race tyre compound livened up proceedings and 13 of the 22 starters (and finishers) used all three at some point in the race. Having lost Saturday through rain, and with a much warmer race day, the teams and their strategists were working blind and living on their instincts and experience.It makes for a better and less predictable race. After an horrific accident in Australia and then missing Bahrain, Fernando Alonso was finally cleared to race in China. Here he talks to Martin Brundle With 62 pit stops and so much talk about tyres, it was maybe a little too much, and we are told that the wider 2017 tyres will be targeting much less degradation. The supersofts in Shanghai degraded at four tenths of a second per lap, which is very high, but spices up the action.I can see why the drivers are frustrated, because the major race-long focus is on tyre preservation and not going as fast as humanly possible. The problem with the zero-deg tyres of the past is that we had very little action of any kind. Lets hope the 2017-spec can find a nice balance between the two.Lewis elected to start from the grid and not the pit lane because that should always deliver a better track position at the end of lap one, but sadly he was penalised for that. Every race live in 2016 Sky Sports F1 brings you every race live in 2016. Fast and easy online upgrade - click here. After a great start and a careful approach around the carnage of turns one and two, a Sauber suddenly entered stage left and heavy suspension and front-wing contact was made. A trip through the gravel with the wing trapped underneath did nothing helpful for his numerous aerodynamic addenda.As much as I admire the skill and artistry of all these myriad of strakes and aerofoils, I wish we could simplify them because races are so often ruined by cars which lose a mysterious 30 points of downforce which we just cant see or feel as spectators.Nothing seemed to work thereafter for Lewis, and by just after half distance he had pitted five times for tyres and a wing and then had a long run to the finished. The team were unaware that one of his sets of tyres had been cut in the contact. At one point, Lewis made a great and unorthodox move on Valtteri Bottas in turn nine, along with other passes and carrying solid pace, but a similar move on the other Williams of Felipe Massa failed and left him exposed to being passed by Ricciardo.Despite such occasional strong pace, it was clear that Lewiss Merc was munching through its tyres too fast, although one driver on the plane on the way home unprompted said to me: Ive no idea why Lewis thought his tyres would survive attacking the fast corners like he was when I was behind him.Rosberg feels that the next few races really suit him, and Lewis must feel that his unlucky run will be coming to an end. Either way, Rosberg is guaranteed to be leading the championship until at least Spain and hes on a super-impressive roll.MBDont miss the F1 Report on Wednesday at 8:30pm on Sky Sports F1 for full analysis of an action-packed Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit. Natalie Pinkham is joined in the studio by Marc Priestley and Alex Lynn. Also See: Hamilton admits: Im out of jokers Chinese GP driver ratings Wholesale Brewers Jerseys .C. -- Al Jefferson joked that he feels he can score from anywhere on the court. Brewers Jerseys 2020 . Marincin has played in two NHL games so far this season with two penalty minutes. The 21-year-old has three goals, four assists and a plus-5 rating in 24 games with the American Hockey Leagues Oklahoma City Barons this season. https://www.cheapbrewers.com/ . Sgt. Eric ONeal says most of the arrests at Monday nights game were for public drunkenness, though one person was taken into custody on suspicion of trying to steal a seat from the stadium. Brewers Jerseys China . Isner, ranked No. 14, won his eighth career singles title and took the title in New Zealand for the second time after his victory in 2010. The match was similar to Isners quarterfinal victory over fifth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber which went to three sets, all tiebreaks and contained no breaks of serve. Brewers Jerseys 2019 . -- The Missouri Tigers might not have a roster full of superstars. DAVIE, Fla. -- The plays Adam Gase calls on third down arent working.Results on first and second down have been underwhelming, too, but third down is the biggest issue for the Miami Dolphins sputtering offense under first-year coach Gase.He took the job with a reputation as a play-calling wiz, thanks to success with Peyton Manning in Denver and Jay Cutler in Chicago. But the Dolphins (1-3) rank fifth worst in scoring at 71 points, largely because theyre last in third-down conversions at 27 percent.Were a little bit off on some things, Gase said. If we could just make the plays that are there, thats going to help us a lot.A play callers reputation is made on third down, Gase acknowledged.Youre putting it on yourself, he said. Thats why sometimes as a play caller you get frustrated, because youre like, `I need to hit the right number here and call the right play versus the defensive coordinator. And sometimes when its all not quite going right -- youre calling the wrong play at the wrong time, were not finishing, were doing this wrong and that wrong -- it just kind of snowballs on you.In Gases defense, third down is a problem that predates him. The Dolphins were third worst with a 31 percent conversion rate last year, when they finished 6-10.This year Ryan Tannehill has a passer rating of 74.9 on third down, compared with 87.3 overall. He agreed with Gase that improvement is easily achievable, beginning Sunday against Tennessee .Weve had third-and-manageable opportunities, and its just simple things, nothing crazy, Tannehill said. We make eight to 10 more plays on third down and were in the top of the league. Its not major fixes. Its just a throw here, a catch here, a block here, and they add up.dddddddddddd We just have to, as a group, play cleaner football and the conversions will come.Maybe running back Arian Foster can make a difference. He returned to practice Wednesday after being sidelined with a groin injury, and his pass-catching skills could prove valuable on third down.But a feeble ground game has been part of the problem. Foster and the other running backs are collectively averaging less than 61 yards per game, often leaving Miami in third-and-long situations.Jarvis Landry hasnt been able to help much either, even though hes widely regarded as a top possession receiver and ranks second in the league with 31 catches.Its about winning the matchup and making the one-on-one play, Landry said. For us, we just have to do that more.Three-and-outs have been a particular problem, which is why opponents have an advantage of more than 10 minutes per game in time of possession. In last weeks 22-7 loss at Cincinnati, the Dolphins had five three-and-outs in their first nine possessions, which netted a total of 20 yards.Its my history, as far as a lot of the offenses that Ive been a part of, that if you get that first first down, you just feel like, `All right, were going to score now, Gase said. When you have that kind of confidence, you can feel it among the coaching staff and the players.Confidence is unlikely to rise until the Dolphins conversion rate does.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Steven Wine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Steve-Wine. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/steven-wine ' ' '