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Kimi Raikkonen finished the Chinese Grand
Prix this afternoon 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 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. In China, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro has yet
again ended a race with no points to its name. In a race run
entirely in the rain, Kimi Raikkonen finished tenth, while
Felipe Massa retired on lap 21, when lying third, because of
an electrical problem.
Stefano Domenicali: “Today, we are very
annoyed about what happened to Felipe. He was driving an
amazing race, when an electrical problem saw the engine die.
He was third at the time and even though he had a heavy fuel
load, he was lapping in the same time as the fastest and he
would have almost certainly finished the race on the podium.
Kimi switched his strategy, going from a two to a one stop,
but he could not get higher than tenth. On his first set of
tyres, his pace was reasonable, but with the second he
suffered constantly from a lack of grip which kept him out
of the points. The great shame is that at a time when
technically we are not at our best, once again we failed to
capitalise on circumstances. Now we look towards next
weekend’s race in Bahrain in a realistic frame of mind: the
car will be the same as here, even though we will look at
running the KERS again. In the meantime, we have to work
intensively on getting the new aerodynamic components to the
race track, when the European part of the season gets
underway in Barcelona."
Felipe Massa: “Obviously, I’m very
disappointed and a bit upset but my motivation is still
intact. All of us must work together to get out of this
situation. The team is united and there is a real will to
turn things round as soon as possible. We should quickly be
getting some significant aerodynamic developments, but it’s
true we also have to sort out as soon as possible our
reliability problems, because if we want to win, first we
have to finish the races. Today, I was in with a good chance
of getting on the podium. I was third and lapping in the
same times as the leaders, even though I had enough fuel on
board to go for a one stop. The car was going well, except
when running behind the Safety Car: at those times, there
were a few moments when the power seemed to drop. Then,
without warning, the accelerator would not work and the car
went quiet. I would say to our fans that they should not
give up on us, as this is a difficult moment, but the
championship is still long.”
Kimi Raikkonen:
“In the early stages, it wasn’t too bad but then, after my
stop, I lost grip from the tyres and I was no longer able to
push as hard as I wanted, because it meant the car was
sliding a lot. A few times, the engine seemed to lose power,
especially when I found myself close behind other cars, but
then the problem went away on its own. Clearly the
championship situation looks very difficult. We have made
mistakes and we are not quick enough. In Barcelona, when we
will have new aero parts, we should be able to pick up some
of the grip we are lacking now. I am sure we can be
competitive enough to win again but this work will take
time. The team is motivated, I’m sure of that and we will
all do our bit. Now it is easy to criticize, but we know how
to turn things round."
Chris Dyer: “We embarked on the race with
the two drivers on different strategies and with the rain
and the safety car periods, we managed to get ourselves into
a good position, especially with Felipe, who at one point
was third with a lot of fuel on board. Unfortunately, a
software management problem meant the engine cut out and
forced him to retire. It’s a real shame, because we could
have got a good result. Right from the start, Kimi
complained about the lack of visibility when following
others and several times that the engine power was dropping
due to the water, but above all he suffered with a lack of
grip after his stop. In the meantime, we changed his
strategy and he was unable to get any higher than tenth.
Once again we’ve had reliability problems which prevented us
from picking up valuable points.”
Race Details:
K. Raikkonen: 10th, 1:59.15.235 + 1.31.750,
56 Laps
F. Massa: R, 46.32.964 Lap 21, 20 Laps
Chassis: K.Raikonen 276, F. Massa 275
Weather: air temperature 20 °C, track
temperature 22/21 °C, rain.
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