1. The pace for cars tend to vary between the race and qualifying, as some cars are fast over one lap and slow over a 70-lap race, and vice versa. As mentioned above, Mercedes haven't been very good on tyres in races, so they weren't expected to pull it off for the race.
2. Qualifying is spilt into three sections. The slowest 6 of the 22 cars is knocked out after the first 20 minute section and have their grid places 'locked in'. The same goes for the 6 slowest of the 16 cars left in the second 15 minute section. The final 10 minute section makes up the top 10 places, and as Mark Webber didn't bother to do a time for this section, he was placed 10th.
3. Cars tend to be very similar, with the only differences being the quality of the engineering and who makes their engines. It tends to happen that one team works out a way to find a loophole in the rules though, and thus gets well ahead until it's banned the following season. For the past few seasons, that's been Red Bull.
4. You can only block the car behind once a lap, I think. Even then you can't move across the track too fast, otherwise you risk being called for 'dangerous driving' and being given a penalty.
5. As far as I'm aware the DRS system just doesn't work outside the area it's allowed to work in due to an automated system. That system has been known to break or not turned on however, at which point it's up to the drivers to not use it outside of that area or get a penalty. This happened to Alonso in the last race actually, and Ferrari (the team he races for) were given a 15k Euro fine as a result. As for knowing when it's allowed, there's a timing gate at a point on the track, and if the car behind is closer than a second, then DRS can be activated.
6. The switch between tyres is actually forced in the rules. Both sets of tyres for the race have to be used (unless it's a wet race), in order to force teams to pit. This also forces teams to use the harder, slower tyre at some point in the race, which can give drivers behind on pass if they happen to be on the faster 'soft' tyres, which do not last as long.
8. If a car cuts a corner and passes another car, they are usually forced to let the other car back past. If the car in front cuts the corner (usually to avoid a crash with the car behind trying to overtake) and stays ahead, then usually no action is taken.
10. 1st 25, 2nd 18, 3rd 15, 4th 12, 5th 10, 6th 8, 7th 6, 8th 4, 9th 2 and 10th 1.
Hope that helps!
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