Grapevine: Straw Poll: Saturday at Shanghai

Twelve months ago, Lewis Hamilton's world championship chances took a hit from which they never recovered when he clattered into the gravel trap on the pitlane entry road after being left out far too long on badly-wearing wet tyres.

In this morning's third free practice session, there was an echo of that incident when Hamilton outbraked himself at the same left-hander and took to the escape road.

In itself, the incident was meaningless - a tiny mistake and a driver rightly taking the cautious option and bailing out of the corner. But it raised plenty of questions. Was the pressure getting to Hamilton? Would he overdo it in qualifying? Was this a portent of mistakes to come?

No. No. No. In the end, it was a near-perfect afternoon for Hamilton. Just as at Fuji a week ago, he bounced back from a disappointing first attempt in Q3 to take pole, ultimately by over three tenths of a second from the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.

The compere of the post-qualifying television press-conference, Peter Windsor, asked Hamilton how he was approaching the weekend in the light of the many thousands of column inches generated around the world on the topic of his driving, his mindset and his title chances.

Like so many top drivers, he preferred his driving to do the talking.

"I think you can see from my result that I'm dealing with it quite well."

Hamilton had the air of someone who was enjoying defying his critics. He certainly had a case to answer after what happened at Fuji, but today Hamilton really looked like the relaxed championship favourite he has been saying he is for the past few days.

Maybe today's lap - another fantastic effort - has helped exorcise the daemons of last year. Or maybe that's reading too much into it and it was simply a great driver pulling it out of the bag.

There was one problem today for Hamilton - he revealed he was unaware it was Heikki Kovalainen's birthday tomorrow when the Finn was pitched a question about whether qualifying fifth would spoil his special day!

Heikki didn't look too hurt though, and in response to the question simply said that winning from fifth is better than winning from pole! Sources remain tight-lipped on whether Hamilton opted to head into Shanghai city centre to find a suitable gift - his overtaking skills would certainly be useful given the terrible traffic here but for the fact foreigners aren't allowed to drive in China!s

All in all, it was hard to avoid the conclusion that Hamilton had the air of a champion about him - no mean feat considering some of the headlines he's had to put up with in the past few days.

It's always dangerous ground to attempt to draw conclusions about what is going on inside someone's head, but he seemed unusually relaxed. That can only bode well for his chances come tomorrow's race.

As for Hamilton's main title rival, Felipe Massa, he had a relatively quiet day. Chances are with a very sensible fuel load on board, he ended up third and had the quiet air of a driver who knows things will be a lot closer tomorrow. But all in all, while Hamilton is at the centre of the title maelstrom off-track, the Brazilian is being allowed to let his driving do the talking.

Talking of Brazilian drivers, one of the unsung heroes of the day was Rubens Barrichello. The Brazilian hauled the Honda RA108 into Q2. Not a bad effort for someone who most reckon is in his penultimate Grand Prix on set to be replaced by a younger model.

"I cannot remember when we last made it to Q2," said the Brazilian after qualifying. He's definitely keen to stay on next year with Honda, not least because of the underachieving cars he's been stuck with for the last couple of years.

"It's almost like you deserve the seat because the car has been so bad for two years" he said. "I came out of Ferrari because I thought this would be a different chance of becoming world champion - I was very wrong on that. It may be better next year and it's only fair that you give me a better car to drive!"

The next question was how long he wants to remain in Formula One - to which Rubens simply declared "seven". Now that would stretch the record for Grand Prix starts to a ludicrous level, as well as guaranteeing the sport has a decent proportion of gentlemen on the grid for the next few seasons.

The final twist of the day came with confirmation that BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld had been hit with a grid penalty for impeding David Coulthard. For the second time in three races Heidfeld was given a three-place penalty rather than the five reserved for most other perpetrators of the offence.

The stewards are perfectly within their rights to vary the penalties depending on the severity of the offence, but some muttered conspiracy. Evidence of the FIA's bias in favour of bearded drivers, perhaps?

And the biggest off-track story of today - the Formula One Teams' Association's response to the FIA's single-engine tender? Well, for a idea of how serious the teams are taking it, the FOTA meeting was still rumbling on pushing four hours after it started.

When it comes to future rules, F1 still has a hell of a lot to talk about.