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Second and
third for Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen respectively
in the Chinese Grand Prix, but a mountain to climb for
the Brazilian driver with one round remaining in the
world championship, as the winner today, producing what
one has to say was a faultless lights to flag
performance, was Lewis Hamilton. This means the
Englishman extends his lead over Massa to seven points
with just ten to play for in Brazil in a fortnight's
time. In the Constructors' classification, Scuderia
Ferrari Marlboro leads its closest rivals,
McLaren-Mercedes by eleven points.
As the cars gridded the forecast was for some chance of
rain around the mid-point of the race. Kimi was on the
front row alongside pole man Hamilton, while Felipe was
behind the McLaren driver in third place, with Fernando
Alonso alongside him.
When the penultimate round of the world championship got
underway, the majority of the cars were on the prime
tyre, but the Ferraris were on the option. As the lights
went out, the first three left the grid in order,
Hamilton, Kimi and Felipe, with Kovalainen getting ahead
of Alonso with the Renault man then getting the better
of the Finn a few corners later. Most progress was made
by Webber, going from 16th to 12th but he was running
very light and would stop early. Trulli and Bourdais
tangled shortly after the start and dropped to the back
of the field. Trulli was the first to retire, on lap 3
in the Toyota. After four laps, Hamilton had a 2.7 lead
over Kimi with Massa a further 2.0 behind. The leader
then put in a fastest lap to extend his lead to 3.1.
Alonso was still in touch with Felipe, but behind the
Renault a gap of almost 5 seconds passed before the rest
of the field crossed the line.
By lap 10, Hamilton had extended his lead over Kimi to
3.9 and over Felipe to 4.0. Behind them came Alonso,
Kovalainen, Heidfeld, Vettel, Kubica, Webber with Piquet
completing the top ten. Next time round and Kimi put in
a fastest race lap, reducing the gap by 2 tenths. The
best battle at this stage involved Rosberg's Williams
all over the back of Glock's Toyota for 12th place, the
Finn finally getting the upper hand.
As expected, Webber who had climbed as high as ninth,
was the first to pit on lap 12. There were now almost
identical gaps between the lead trio so that Hamilton to
Massa was now 8.4 until Felipe refuelled on lap 14 for 9
seconds, with Alonso also coming in at this time. The
race leader came in next time round (9.4) as did
Raikkonen. Kovalainen and Heidfeld now were in the top
two slots, followed by Hamilton, Vettel, Raikkonen,
Kubica and Massa seventh. Heidfeld pitted on 17,
Kovalainen and Vettel on 18. When Kubica finally made
his refuelling stop on lap 25, the order at the front
returned to its original setting, with Hamilton 6.9
ahead of Kimi, (the gap was coming down) followed by
Felipe, (8.7 behind his team-mate,) Alonso, Kovalainen
and Heidfeld seventh. If Kimi was closing the gap to the
leader, Felipe was losing ground slightly to the Finn
around the halfway point of the 56 lap race. Lap 30 and
the gap between the lead two had grown again, to 7.5, as
Kimi was in traffic. It grew to 8 two laps later.
Nakajima made his first stop and Webber his second on
lap 32, while at the front, everything remained the
same: Hamilton, Kimi, Felipe, Alonso, Kovalainen,
Heidfeld, Kubica, Piquet, Vettel and Glock completing
the top ten. There was a change when Kovalainen got a
puncture and had to cruise back the pits. Alonso made
his final stop from fourth on lap 36, with Felipe making
his second stop on lap 37 (7.5.) Next in the race,
leader followed in by Kimi.
Lap 42, the gap between Hamilton and Kimi was over 12
seconds, but Felipe was closing on his team-mate, only 2
seconds behind. On lap 49, Felipe closed his team-mate
down and went past to go second. But he was 16.5 seconds
behind the McLaren man with only seven laps remaining.
That's how it stayed to the flag with Alonso fourth,
Heidfeld fifth, Kubica, sixth, Glock seventh and Piquet
in the last points position eighth.
After this result, the Scuderia has consolidated its
lead in the Constructors' classification, now heading
its closest competitor by eleven points, while Felipe
has dropped back a further two points in the Drivers'
and is now seven off the leader. For the eleventh time
in the last twelve seasons, Ferrari goes into the final
round of the Championship in the running for both titles
or having already taken one or both of them.
Stefano Domenicali: "Today, we did the best we
could at the end of a weekend when our main rival proved
to be superior to us in terms of performance, both over
a single lap and in terms of race pace. These fourteen
points are very important for the Constructors'
championship, in which we have increased our lead.
Felipe has lost a bit of ground but now has nothing to
lose, and he will give it his best shot in his home
race, where he can count on the warm support of his
fans. We will try and give our drivers a car with more
performance than we had today. To do that, we need to
analyse what did not work on this track, also taking
into account that things can change very quickly: at
Fuji and in Singapore we were better than our
competitors in terms of performance, while here it was
the opposite. Felipe passing Kimi? Our drivers are well
aware what is in the best interests of the team and they
acted accordingly. Indeed, events like this have already
happened this season in other teams, which is a normal
state of affairs in a sport like Formula 1."
Felipe Massa: "This is a great result for the
team, less so for me. Today's race was a difficult one:
we were not quick enough to fight against Hamilton.
Losing two points does not mean that I have lost hope. I
will continue to fight right to the very end and I can't
wait to race in Interlagos in front of my home crowd: I
will try my luck there - it will be the first time for a
Brazilian - which will be a further incentive. There was
no specific element that wasn't working on my car. It's
just that today it was impossible for me to win. I feel
a bit as though I'm in a penalty shoot-out in the
football World Cup finals: we have missed the first two
shots, while the other team has scored and therefore we
cannot make any more mistakes and hope that they make
three. It will be very difficult, but not impossible as
we saw last year. The team is united and has faith: that
is very important and nice too."
Kimi Raikkonen: "Today I had a good car, but it
was not quick enough to beat our main competitor. At the
start and after every tyre change, Hamilton managed to
pull away, while when it got near to the pit stops I was
able to go a bit quicker, but it was always too late. On
top of that, three times, I came up behind backmarkers
who cost me valuable time. We secured a very good result
for the Constructors' classification. Now we go to
Brazil where we must try and get a one-two finish and
then we can see where we stand in both Championships.
Felipe passing me? I am part of a team and I am well
aware what they expect of me. I am out of the title
fight and have to do the maximum because Ferrari can
achieve both its objectives. It's a simple as that."
Luca Baldisserri: "Our opponents were better than
us today which we must do something about. We suffered
from a chronic lack of traction, on both types of tyre.
We worked on the car all weekend to try and improve the
situation, but evidently our efforts were not enough to
fight at the highest level. Therefore, second and third
places represent the maximum we could do in these
conditions, although it does allow us to make a step
forward towards the Constructors' title, which is very
important for us. Now we must concentrate on analyzing
our performance at this track and on preparing for the
Brazilian Grand Prix, where we will do our utmost to
pick up maximum points, as in fact we do at every race."
Race details:
F. Massa: 2nd 1:32.12.328 + 14.925 56 laps chassis 269
K. Raikkonen: 3rd 1:32.13.848 + 16.445 56 laps chassis
270
Weather: air temperature 27 °C, track temperature 30/29
°C, overcast.
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