Chinese GP - Rain rules in Shanghai
Shanghai 18 April
Exactly predicted at the start of the week, rain arrived just before the start of the Chinese Grand Prix. Today, the weather gods did not help the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team, as Fernando Alonso came home in fourth place and Felipe Massa was ninth, at least bringing home 14 valuable points. However, this was not enough to keep the lead in both championships, as the Scuderia now drops to second place behind McLaren, who scored a convincing one-two, with Jenson Button taking his second win of the season ahead of team-mate, Lewis Hamilton. The very consistent Nico Rosberg was third for Mercedes, which means he is now second in the Drivers’ classification behind Button and ahead of third placed Alonso. Massa drops down from first to sixth.
In very light drizzle, the majority of cars started on slicks, including Fernando who shot forward from the second row to get ahead of the two Red Bulls going into the first corner. Unfortunately, the Spaniard was deemed to have jumped the start and would later come in for a drive-through penalty, which effectively ruined his race. Before then, the Safety Car came out on the opening lap because of a mid-field collision. At this point, both F10s came in to switch to intermediate tyres as the rain intensified as did much of the field, with Fernando dropping to sixth. At the front, Button, Rosberg, Kubica, Petrov and De La Rosa stayed on slicks to lead the race in that order: it was a clever move as the track soon began to dry again, so that a few laps later, those who had fitted rain tyres had to come in again for slicks, including Felipe on lap 6, which dropped him to thirteenth. By lap 14, the Brazilian was eleventh, two places ahead of his Spanish team-mate who had taken his penalty. Lap 19 saw more rain and yet another tyre change, with the two Ferrari men coming in for a double stop, with Fernando just sliding in first so that he was tenth with Felipe twelfth, before the rain got much heavier on lap 25. A couple of laps later, Fernando was now seventh and Felipe eleventh, the Spaniard going sixth after passing Sutil and on lap 31, Massa was in tenth spot, having passed fellow countryman Barrichello. When Petrov spun on lap 34, Alonso found himself fifth and then as high as third when he made a final stop on lap 38. From then on he was fourth to the flag after 56 laps. Felipe enjoyed a great battle with his former team-mate Michael Schumacher in the closing stages, finally passing him on the penultimate lap to finish ninth.
The order behind fourth placed Alonso at the flag was, Kubica fifth, followed by Vettel, Petrov, Webber, then Felipe, with Schumacher taking the last point for tenth place. Now the biggest problem facing all the teams is how to get back to their European bases, because of the volcanic cloud affecting flights home. Hopefully the ingenuity used to go racing can find a clever solution to this problem too.
Exactly predicted at the start of the week, rain arrived just before the start of the Chinese Grand Prix. Today, the weather gods did not help the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team, as Fernando Alonso came home in fourth place and Felipe Massa was ninth, at least bringing home 14 valuable points. However, this was not enough to keep the lead in both championships, as the Scuderia now drops to second place behind McLaren, who scored a convincing one-two, with Jenson Button taking his second win of the season ahead of team-mate, Lewis Hamilton. The very consistent Nico Rosberg was third for Mercedes, which means he is now second in the Drivers’ classification behind Button and ahead of third placed Alonso. Massa drops down from first to sixth.
In very light drizzle, the majority of cars started on slicks, including Fernando who shot forward from the second row to get ahead of the two Red Bulls going into the first corner. Unfortunately, the Spaniard was deemed to have jumped the start and would later come in for a drive-through penalty, which effectively ruined his race. Before then, the Safety Car came out on the opening lap because of a mid-field collision. At this point, both F10s came in to switch to intermediate tyres as the rain intensified as did much of the field, with Fernando dropping to sixth. At the front, Button, Rosberg, Kubica, Petrov and De La Rosa stayed on slicks to lead the race in that order: it was a clever move as the track soon began to dry again, so that a few laps later, those who had fitted rain tyres had to come in again for slicks, including Felipe on lap 6, which dropped him to thirteenth. By lap 14, the Brazilian was eleventh, two places ahead of his Spanish team-mate who had taken his penalty. Lap 19 saw more rain and yet another tyre change, with the two Ferrari men coming in for a double stop, with Fernando just sliding in first so that he was tenth with Felipe twelfth, before the rain got much heavier on lap 25. A couple of laps later, Fernando was now seventh and Felipe eleventh, the Spaniard going sixth after passing Sutil and on lap 31, Massa was in tenth spot, having passed fellow countryman Barrichello. When Petrov spun on lap 34, Alonso found himself fifth and then as high as third when he made a final stop on lap 38. From then on he was fourth to the flag after 56 laps. Felipe enjoyed a great battle with his former team-mate Michael Schumacher in the closing stages, finally passing him on the penultimate lap to finish ninth.
The order behind fourth placed Alonso at the flag was, Kubica fifth, followed by Vettel, Petrov, Webber, then Felipe, with Schumacher taking the last point for tenth place. Now the biggest problem facing all the teams is how to get back to their European bases, because of the volcanic cloud affecting flights home. Hopefully the ingenuity used to go racing can find a clever solution to this problem too.
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