Chinese GP - Still no points when a podium looked possible
Shanghai, 19th April 2009
Kimi Raikkonen finished the Chinese Grand Prix in tenth place, while Felipe Massa retired on the twenty first lap, parking his F60 at the side of the track, with an electrical problem, when he looked to be heading for a third place, following a fantastic drive up to that point.
The race ended in a one-two finish, for the Red Bull Racing team, securing its first ever F1 win, courtesy of Sebastian Vettel, with team-mate Mark Webber second. Joining them on the podium was the championship leader, Brawn GP’s Jenson Button.
Yet another wet Formula 1 afternoon as the cars lined up on the grid, with Kimi Raikkonen in eighth place and his Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team mate, Felipe Massa in thirteenth. Timo Glock and Robert Kubica would start from the pit lane. With minutes to go, there were rumours the race would start behind the Safety Car as drivers were complaining of aquaplaning and rivers of water running across the Shanghai track at several points. The rumour was correct: with very poor visibility the cars trailed behind the Safety Car, both Ferraris and others at some point even going off the track and continuing, until finally the race got underway on lap 9 although Alonso had already pitted one lap earlier as did Rosberg. At this point Kimi was sixth and Felipe thirteenth, but the Finn, telling the pit wall his engine was not running well when in traffic, would soon be passed by Hamilton in the McLaren, with Felipe now eleventh. On lap 12, Buemi passed Kimi and then the Finn lost a further place to his team-mate. In fact, Felipe was making good progress, running a heavy fuel load and passed Trulli to go sixth on lap 14.
Kimi still appeared to be struggling and he lost seventh place to Hamilton on lap 16, although the Finn fought back to retake the place one lap later.
The race was neutralised again on lap 19, after Kubica and Trulli collided at the end of the main straight. Two laps later and Felipe, with a heavy fuel load was now running third, between Vettel and Button and ahead of Webber, Kimi and Hamilton. But it was not to be, as Felipe suddenly found he was getting nothing from his throttle pedal and the car just cut out at the side of the track.
Kimi then lost a place to Hamilton to drop to fifth on lap 23, five laps before making his only pit stop, after changing from a two stop strategy, taking on enough fuel to get to the end of the 56 lap race. On lap 29 came a significant moment at the front, when Button slid wide letting Vettel back into the lead. Kimi naturally slid down the order after his stop and found the car lacked grip in this final stint, which meant he was always struggling to make up places and in fact had to defend his position from various attacks on a difficult afternoon. With around four laps to go, the order seemed finally fixed and behind the podium trio came Barrichello, Kovalainen, Hamilton, Glock, Buemi, the last of the points scorers, then Alonso and Raikkonen.
The rain continued to fall in Shanghai, as the teams packed up as quickly as possible, for another flight and another race next Sunday: the fourth round of the championship takes place in Bahrain and so work starts at the Sakhir circuit almost immediately. The Ferrari F60s will be pretty much to the same configuration as here, although Team Principal, Stefano Domenicali said the engineers would look at the possibility of using KERS again, after it was left off the cars this weekend.
Kimi Raikkonen finished the Chinese Grand Prix in tenth place, while Felipe Massa retired on the twenty first lap, parking his F60 at the side of the track, with an electrical problem, when he looked to be heading for a third place, following a fantastic drive up to that point.
The race ended in a one-two finish, for the Red Bull Racing team, securing its first ever F1 win, courtesy of Sebastian Vettel, with team-mate Mark Webber second. Joining them on the podium was the championship leader, Brawn GP’s Jenson Button.
Yet another wet Formula 1 afternoon as the cars lined up on the grid, with Kimi Raikkonen in eighth place and his Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team mate, Felipe Massa in thirteenth. Timo Glock and Robert Kubica would start from the pit lane. With minutes to go, there were rumours the race would start behind the Safety Car as drivers were complaining of aquaplaning and rivers of water running across the Shanghai track at several points. The rumour was correct: with very poor visibility the cars trailed behind the Safety Car, both Ferraris and others at some point even going off the track and continuing, until finally the race got underway on lap 9 although Alonso had already pitted one lap earlier as did Rosberg. At this point Kimi was sixth and Felipe thirteenth, but the Finn, telling the pit wall his engine was not running well when in traffic, would soon be passed by Hamilton in the McLaren, with Felipe now eleventh. On lap 12, Buemi passed Kimi and then the Finn lost a further place to his team-mate. In fact, Felipe was making good progress, running a heavy fuel load and passed Trulli to go sixth on lap 14.
Kimi still appeared to be struggling and he lost seventh place to Hamilton on lap 16, although the Finn fought back to retake the place one lap later.
The race was neutralised again on lap 19, after Kubica and Trulli collided at the end of the main straight. Two laps later and Felipe, with a heavy fuel load was now running third, between Vettel and Button and ahead of Webber, Kimi and Hamilton. But it was not to be, as Felipe suddenly found he was getting nothing from his throttle pedal and the car just cut out at the side of the track.
Kimi then lost a place to Hamilton to drop to fifth on lap 23, five laps before making his only pit stop, after changing from a two stop strategy, taking on enough fuel to get to the end of the 56 lap race. On lap 29 came a significant moment at the front, when Button slid wide letting Vettel back into the lead. Kimi naturally slid down the order after his stop and found the car lacked grip in this final stint, which meant he was always struggling to make up places and in fact had to defend his position from various attacks on a difficult afternoon. With around four laps to go, the order seemed finally fixed and behind the podium trio came Barrichello, Kovalainen, Hamilton, Glock, Buemi, the last of the points scorers, then Alonso and Raikkonen.
The rain continued to fall in Shanghai, as the teams packed up as quickly as possible, for another flight and another race next Sunday: the fourth round of the championship takes place in Bahrain and so work starts at the Sakhir circuit almost immediately. The Ferrari F60s will be pretty much to the same configuration as here, although Team Principal, Stefano Domenicali said the engineers would look at the possibility of using KERS again, after it was left off the cars this weekend.
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