As Ferrari
celebrated the milestone of 200 grand prix wins, in fact
half of the eight points scorers today in Shanghai were
powered by Ferrari engines, as the Faenza, Italy-based
Scuderia Toro Rosso outfit claimed its first points of the
year with a fourth and sixth place finish. Coupled to the
podium finishes for Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, this
meant that Ferrari engines took 1-3-4-6 place in the Chinese
Grand Prix.
Toro Rosso's
Sebastian Vettel put the heartache of Fuji firmly behind him
in Shanghai on Sunday. Vettel enjoyed a sterling drive,
making up 13 places in a drizzly Chinese Grand Prix to
finish fourth - the team's best result to date. After
receiving a five-place grid penalty for blocking Renault’s
Heikki Kovalainen during Saturday’s qualifying, the 20
year-old started down in 17th, but an excellent start saw
quickly move up to 11th in the opening laps. As it had done
in Japan, before Vettel's collision with Red Bull’s Mark
Webber, the STR02 proved to have a great deal of pace in
damp conditions. Vettel's race was also helped by the team’s
clever one-stop strategy, which allowed the young German to
get the better of several two-stopping cars.
Thus Toro Rosso got their first official points of the
season, and a strong drive from Vettel’s team mate Tonio
Liuzzi, who early on ran fourth on merit, saw the
two-stopping Italian finish sixth. Unfortunately for him,
his strategy didn’t work so well when the conditions
changed, and he struggled with tyre graining all through the
race.
Sebastian
Vettel: “P4! A Fantastic race. In the beginning it was
quite difficult, starting in the mid field. For a couple of
metres the visibility was okay and then you got all the
spray. After the start, I used my momentum to go round the
outside of several cars. Even though it was really slippery
I took the risk. I kept pushing as hard as I could. After I
passed Kovalainen I had a clear track ahead of me and was
able to push harder. Just as I changed to dry tyres the rain
came, but fortunately it went away quickly.
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Sebastian Vettel put the heartache of Fuji firmly
behind him in Shanghai on Sunday. Vettel enjoyed a
sterling drive, making up 13 places in a drizzly
Chinese Grand Prix to finish fourth - the team's
best result to date. |
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As Ferrari celebrated 200 grand prix wins, in fact
half of the points scorers today in Shanghai used
Ferrari engines as the Toro Rosso team claimed its
first points of the year with fourth and sixth
place. |
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"I fought with Jenson, but when we realised he was on a two
stopper, I didn’t worry. The last 20 laps were unbelievable
and even though I had the situation under control and slowed
the pace, it was tough. A fantastic day for the whole team,
especially with Tonio in P6. Yesterday I wasn’t happy with
my grid penalty but today I got my revenge on the track.
Finish fourth is fantastic. When I left the factory in
Italy, the guys said ‘Sebastian, you must bring back some
points’ and I said I’d try. In Fuji we got close and today
came this great result. Now I will celebrate with the team
who did a great job in the pit stops and with the strategy.”
Tonio Liuzzi: “This was a great race from start to
finish with everything going perfectly. I think Sebastian’s
one stop strategy was better but that does not matter now.
It is fantastic for the team that we both scored points. I
made no mistakes and had some great fights with Williams,
Renault and BMW. I don’t think we could have done more than
this. I am really happy for the team who really deserve
these points. Many times this year, we have shown that we
were capable of scoring points, but somehow we never got
them. Now everyone can be happy and it shows that the team
is growing and that all the guys are doing a great job. Now
we can go to Brazil in a really positive frame of mind after
showing what we can do, both here and in Fuji last week. We
deserve this result.”
Gerhard Berger: “A very good result thanks to a
fantastic effort from the team and both drivers. We have
been working very very hard and sometimes this year we have
been a bit unlucky. Today it all came together. This team
works so hard. It is competitive and fights hard with
limited resources, but still doing an outstanding job. The
immediate future? To go to Sao Paulo and try and get more
points.
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