Fernando
Alonso delivered Scuderia Ferrari’s first win of the
season in Shanghai this afternoon, in a race that was
action packed, mainly down to the different strategies
employed in managing the tyres. After a strong start,
Felipe Massa had to settle for sixth at the flag but the
eight points he added to the winner’s 25 means the
Prancing Horse has moved ahead of Lotus to go second in
the Constructors’ championship, just five points behind
the leaders Red Bull.
As the lights went out both Ferrari men got great starts
with Fernando moving up one place to second and Felipe
up to third, helped by a slow start from Raikkonen who
thus slipped from second on the grid to fourth, while
Hamilton maintained his lead from pole. Felipe was right
on his team-mate’s tail and by lap 4, the two of them
were hassling the leading Mercedes. At the start of lap
5, Fernando slipstreamed Hamilton to get by and Felipe,
determined not to be left behind dived down the inside
of the Englishman to be second: a long way to go, but it
was now a Ferrari one-two. Hamilton and Rosberg both
pitted on lap 6. Guttierez ran into the back of Sutil on
the back straight, with the Mexican retiring on track
and the German in the pits.
Fernando and Raikkonen pitted for Prime tyres on lap 6,
which left Fernando and Hamilton to battle for eleventh.
Felipe pitted on lap 7, as did Maldonaldo in the
Williams. This slightly later stop for Felipe saw him
drop down the order more than expected. The lead trio
was now Hulkenberg, Vettel and Button, the same three
drivers who opted not to set a time in Saturday’s Q3 so
as to start on the Medium Pirelli. Throughout the race,
there would be “false” leaders as the pit stops ran out
of synch between the top 7 on the grid who started on
the Soft and the rest of the field who had gone for the
Medium. Lap 9 and it was Felipe fighting Webber for
eleventh, as Fernando now found himself back in sixth
ahead of Hamilton and Vergne in the Toro Rosso.
On lap 10, Massa got past Bottas in the Williams to go
tenth. One lap later the order was Hulkenberg, Vettel,
Button, Perez and Di Resta fifth, all on the Medium all
yet to pit. Fernando was the first of those who had made
the switch from the Soft to Medium and then came
Hamilton seventh, followed by Raikkonen, Vergne, the
Frenchman yet to stop, with Felipe 10th ahead of Webber
who had started his Red Bull from the pits.
Lap 13 and Fernando was in fifth, menacing fourth placed
Perez in the McLaren and the Ferrari got past as they
crossed the line to start the next lap. Lap 14 and the
two leaders, Vettel and Hulkenberg pitted, as did Di
Resta. On the same lap, Webber collided with Vergne and
the two men had to pit, the Australian for a nose and
the Frenchman for a puncture. While this had been going
on, Fernando was now second behind Button and Felipe was
sixth in between Perez and Vettel.
Lap 17 and Webber was out having lost a wheel off his
Red Bull. Fernando was 0.6 behind Button but the
Englishman seemed to be controlling the gap, as he
continued to run on his first set of Medium tyres. On
lap 19, Vettel managed to pass Felipe, who immediately
pitted for a fresh set of Mediums. On lap 20, another
spurt from the Spanish Ferrari man saw him again close
right up to Button, while behind them was another
exciting battle as Raikkonen harried third placed
Hamilton.
On lap 21, Fernando was leading once more having swept
past Button and he immediately pulled out a lead of 1.5
seconds. Hamilton and Raikkonen came into the pit lane
together and left in the same order. Last year’s China
winner, Rosberg, retired his Mercedes in the pits on lap
22 and Felipe was eleventh after his visit to pit lane,
behind Raikkonen and ahead of Maldonaldo. One lap later,
Fernando made a second tyre change, followed into pit
lane by Button making his first tyre switch. The
Spaniard came out third ahead of Perez, again leaving
Vettel and Hulkenberg, out of synch on tyre changes, in
the top two places, as Felipe chased Di Resta’s Force
India for seventh spot. Fernando was flying and
dispensed with Hulkenberg’s Sauber to go second on lap
26, 3.8 behind Vettel. The gap came down to 2.1 on the
next lap, as the Ferrari man set a fastest race lap. The
red car continued to close on the purple one, with a one
second gap on lap 28 and next time round Alonso swept
into the lead once again.
Felipe moved up to seventh when Hulkenberg pitted and
found he now had Vettel behind him as the German had
just pitted. With fresh rubber, the Red Bull was able to
pass the F138 with a robust move. Out in front, Fernando
had more than 11 seconds in hand over Hamilton, who had
Raikkonen and Button behind him, with Vettel now fifth
ahead of Hulkenberg and Felipe seventh, which became
sixth when Raikkonen pitted the Lotus. The threat from
Vettel was ever present as he passed Button to go third
on lap 36, the same lap that Felipe and Hulkenberg came
in to change tyres, leaving pit lane side by side with
the Ferrari just getting its nose ahead as they rejoined
the track. Hamilton made his third stop on lap 37, so
that Vettel was now second, around 19 seconds behind
Fernando. However, they still both had to visit the pits
one more time, the Ferrari on lap 41, the Red Bull ten
laps later, so that the order between them would switch
twice more, before leaving Fernando to manage the race
to the flag. When Vettel made his final stop, with just
5 laps remaining, it dropped him down the order, so that
Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus came home second with Lewis
Hamilton completing the podium for Mercedes. Vettel and
Button filled the next two slots, ahead of sixth placed
Felipe.
The result means that the F1 circus heads to Bahrain for
next Sunday’s fourth round of the championship, with
Alonso third in the Drivers’ classification, 6 points
behind second placed Raikkonen and 9 behind the leader
Vettel. Hamilton is fourth, followed 10 points down by
Massa.
Luca di Montezemolo:
“I was very confident going into this race and today I
am very happy, especially for Domenicali and for
everyone in the Scuderia who has worked so hard and so
well at the track and in Maranello, as they really
deserve this victory. Fernando Alonso drove a great race
and Felipe Massa brought home points that are important
in the Constructors’ classification. Winning in China is
very satisfying for Ferrari and it is also a source of
great pride in Italian technology. Now we go on, but
with our feet firmly on the ground. A thank you to the
fans: it was very nice to see so many Ferrari flags in
the Shanghai grandstands and to feel so much enthusiasm
here in Italy.”
Stefano Domenicali: “I am pleased with the result for
the team as a whole today and clearly with winning a
race that looked like being a difficult one from many
points of view, starting with tyre management. After
what happened in Malaysia, I am particularly happy to
see Fernando on the top step of the podium, because it’s
the best possible turnaround and it’s down to a great
job from the guys here at the track and in Maranello.
However, I am sorry for Felipe who, because of graining,
was unable to make the most of his potential, nor to
secure the result he could have aimed for after his
great start. This is only the third race and in a few
days we will already be back on track to take on another
challenge in Bahrain. In this first part of the
championship it is harder than ever to come up with an
accurate evaluation of the hierarchy in the field:
between qualifying and the race we have seen contrasting
performances for some teams and therefore we must
concentrate very hard on improving the car over the
single lap in qualifying, while maintaining the
performance level we have seen over the long runs.”
Fernando Alonso: “It couldn’t have gone better than this
today! I hadn’t won since Germany and this has a special
feeling because it was a tricky race full of action.
Along with the second place I got in Australia, this
result shows that the car is competitive and that we are
working in the right direction to always be in the fight
for the podium. For that, I have to thank the team for
the huge efforts it has made both here and back in the
factory. They have worked so hard to put me in this
position from which I can fight with the others on equal
terms. We had a good feeling all through the weekend and
qualifying third gave us the possibility of fighting for
the top places. On top of that, maybe we were owed some
good luck. Along with that all the important factors
worked perfectly, such as set-up, strategy, calling the
pit stops and the stops themselves. All together it
produced a win that wasn’t easy at the end of a race in
which we made the most of our pace and did a good job of
managing the tyres, which was definitely the most
dangerous aspect. With no one dominating the
Championship, it makes it extremely interesting, even if
we are aware this is only the third race. We are under
no illusions and we must continue to concentrate and do
all we can to improve still further.”
Felipe Massa: “It’s difficult to understand exactly what
happened today, because the start went very well. I was
immediately quick and the car was working perfectly. At
the first stop, I fitted the Medium tyres and after a
few laps I began to suffer with graining on the front.
That meant I lost ground to other cars and it was
probably down to a problem linked to the track
conditions and my driving style. All weekend, I haven’t
felt comfortable with these tyres and in the race, any
attempts I made to save them was useless. But for this
problem, I would certainly have been in the fight for
the podium, but I am still confident because, all the
same, I was able to bring home a good points haul which
is important in a season that has only just begun.”
Pat Fry: “The great start from both cars was certainly
the best way to begin the race. We knew the Mercedes
would have a slightly higher degradation than us and the
double overtaking move on Hamilton at the start of Lap 5
meant we got into the lead immediately. We also knew
that we would rejoin in traffic after the first pit
stop, without knowing if we would have been able to
overtake the cars that were on the Medium: the move paid
off for Fernando with his stop on the sixth lap, while
for Felipe, who pitted on lap 7, it was more difficult,
especially as he had some graining which meant he was
not able to finish any higher. Overall, the F138 showed
that it has a good pace and we can take satisfaction
from that. Now we must immediately turn the page and
concentrate on the race coming up in Bahrain. We are
absolutely aware that we still have a lot of work to do
on qualifying performance if we want to make the most of
our race pace.”
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