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THE RAIN RULES IN SHANGHAI
Exactly predicted at the start of the week, rain arrived just before the start of the Chinese Grand Prix and the weather gods did not help the Scuderia Ferrari team, as Fernando Alonso came home in fourth place and Felipe Massa was ninth, at least bringing home 14 valuable points.
“In a race like this, anything can happen,” explained Alonso at the finish. “We did five pit stops to change tyres, which is definitely unusual: all in all, I think we took the right decisions at the right time. In a race like this you only understand at the end what would have been the best thing to do, as neither on the pit wall nor in the car do we have a crystal ball! I made a serious mistake at the start as my reflexes let me down and I left early. It’s never happened to me before and I am very disappointed with myself. Luckily, despite the penalty, I managed to finish fourth. The passing move on Felipe? If he was not my team-mate, there wouldn’t be so much talk about it and for me it was a normal move and it definitely won’t compromise our relationship. We have a great potential and we must hope we get some normal races like the one in Bahrain. The start of the championship has gone well: we have shown we are competitive on all the tracks and we have what it takes to win the title. Clearly, we have to up our points tally and improve our qualifying performance. McLaren deserve the top spot, because even though they might not have the best car they have got the most out of it every time.”
Only just inside the top ten, Massa was not happy with his Chinese outing.
“Of course, two points are better than nothing, but in the upcoming races we have to do better and that means working on the development of the car,” said Massa. “Right from the start, it was difficult to make the right choice in terms of what tyres to use because of the changeable weather. As for the passing move Fernando made, I ended up on a puddle of water coming out of the hairpin and slightly lost control of the car: he managed to get inside me, passing me going into the pit lane. I lost some places because of it, as I had to wait for his stop to be finished. In the closing laps, I was struggling a lot with the tyres, but Michael was suffering worse than me and I managed to pass him. We have seen how the situation can change radically from one race to the next: we need to work as hard as possible to try and get the most out of the potential at our disposal.”
Although Ferrari collected 14 points in China, this was not enough to keep the lead in both championships, as the Scuderia now drops to second place behind McLaren, who scored a convincing one-two, with Jenson Button taking his second win of the season ahead of team-mate, Lewis Hamilton.
The very consistent Nico Rosberg was third for Mercedes, which means he is now second in the Drivers’ classification behind Button and ahead of third placed Alonso. Massa drops down from first to sixth.
In very light drizzle, the majority of cars started on slicks, including Fernando who shot forward from the second row to get ahead of the two Red Bulls going into the first corner. Unfortunately, the Spaniard was deemed to have jumped the start and would later come in for a drive-through penalty, which effectively ruined his race. Before then, the Safety Car came out on the opening lap because of a mid-field collision. At this point, both F10s came in to switch to intermediate tyres as the rain intensified as did much of the field, with Fernando dropping to sixth. At the front, Button, Rosberg, Kubica, Petrov and De La Rosa stayed on slicks to lead the race in that order: it was a clever move as the track soon began to dry again, so that a few laps later, those who had fitted rain tyres had to come in again for slicks, including Felipe on lap 6, which dropped him to thirteenth. By lap 14, the Brazilian was eleventh, two places ahead of his Spanish team-mate who had taken his penalty. Lap 19 saw more rain and yet another tyre change, with the two Ferrari men coming in for a double stop, with Fernando just sliding in first so that he was tenth with Felipe twelfth, before the rain got much heavier on lap 25. A couple of laps later, Fernando was now seventh and Felipe eleventh, the Spaniard going sixth after passing Sutil and on lap 31, Massa was in tenth spot, having passed fellow countryman Barrichello. When Petrov spun on lap 34, Alonso found himself fifth and then as high as third when he made a final stop on lap 38. From then on he was fourth to the flag after 56 laps. Felipe enjoyed a great battle with his former team-mate Michael Schumacher in the closing stages, finally passing him on the penultimate lap to finish ninth.
The order behind fourth placed Alonso at the flag was, Kubica fifth, followed by Vettel, Petrov, Webber, then Felipe, with Schumacher taking the last point for tenth place.
“First of all, I want to compliment the pit stop crew, who did an amazing job today, handling three double stops without making the slightest mistake and also helping the drivers to make up places,” said Ferrari Team Director, Stefano Domenicali. “As for the strategy choices, especially for the first stop, it’s clear from the top four finishers that two drivers made one choice and the other two a different one, which means it is difficult to give an instant assessment of which was the right one. With hindsight, Button’s paid off better, but it can also be said that, but for his penalty for a jumped start, Fernando could definitely have fought for the victory. As for the passing move involving Felipe and Fernando, we only saw it afterwards on the television replay and I think it was just a racing incident and there is absolutely no problem between the two drivers: when you are always racing to win, you can have moments like this. There’s a slight feeling of regret after these first four rounds of the championship. We have definitely ended up with less than we were capable of, sometimes because of incidents beyond our control and sometimes because of things that were down to us. Having said that, we are still fully in the fight for both titles and that is already very important. Now we must continue to push on the development of the car and its performance, especially in qualifying. Starting in Barcelona, we must get back on the podium and that is completely possible.”
Team Manager, Chris Dyer was confronted by constantly changing conditions and demands on the team.
“An extremely difficult race, affected by the changing weather and, in Fernando’s case, by the incident at the start,” said Dyer. “After the start of the race, we opted to go for the intermediates, but the track did not stay wet enough for long and so we had to go back to slicks. Then, when the rain came, we went back to wets and both cars proved to be very competitive and the drivers did the best job possible of managing the tyres, better than many of the others, thus managing to gain some places. After the penalty, Fernando drove a great race, just as the pit stop guys did an exceptional job and very well done to them for that.”
Chinese GP - Race
Driver Position Time Gap Laps Chassis
F. Alonso 4th 1:46.54.032 + 11.869 56 283
F. Massa 9th 1:47.39.959 + 57.796 56 281
Weather: air temperature 21/19 °C, track temperature 25/22 °C, intermittent rain.
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro takes 14 points away from the Chinese Grand Prix, thanks to a fourth place for Fernando Alonso and a ninth for Felipe Massa. At the end of this first group of races outside Europe, the Scuderia lies second in the Constructors’ classification, with its drivers third and sixth in their championship; Fernando ahead of Felipe.
Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai – Race results
1. Jenson ButtonBritain McLaren-Mercedes 56 laps 1hr 46m 42.163s
2. Lewis HamiltonBritain McLaren-Mercedes+00m 01.5s
3. Nico RosbergGermany Mercedes-Mercedes+00m 09.4s
4. Fernando AlonsoSpain Ferrari-Ferrari+00m 11.8s
5. Robert KubicaPoland Renault-Renault+00m 22.2s
6. Sebastian VettelGermany Red Bull-Renault+00m 33.3s
7. Vitaly PetrovRussia Renault-Renault+00m 47.6s
8. Mark WebberAustralia Red Bull-Renault+00m 52.1s
9. Felipe MassaBrazil Ferrari-Ferrari+00m 57.7s
10. Michael Schumacher Germany Mercedes-Mercedes+01m 01.7s
11. Adrian SutilGermany Force India-Mercedes +01m 02.8s
12. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Williams-Cosworth+01m 03.6s
13. Jaime Alguersuari Spain Toro Rosso-Ferrari+01m 11.4s
14. Heikki Kovalainen Finland Lotus-Cosworth+1 lap
15. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Williams-Cosworth+1 lap
16. Bruno SennaBrazil HRT-Cosworth+2 laps
17. Karun Chandhok India HRT-Cosworth +4 laps
Rtd Jarno TrulliItaly Lotus-Cosworth26 laps completed
Rtd Lucas di GrassiBrazilVirgin-Cosworth18 laps completed
Rtd Pedro de la Rosa Spain BMW Sauber-Ferrari 17 laps completed
Rtd Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari0 laps completed
Rtd Kamui Kobayashi Japan BMW Sauber-Ferrari 0 laps completed
Rtd Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy Force India-Mercedes 0 laps completed
Rtd Timo GlockGermanyVirgin-Cosworth0 laps completed
F1 DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP 2010 (after round 4 of 19)
POSITION / DRIVER / TEAM / POINTS1 / Jenson Button / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 60
2 / Nico Rosberg / Mercedes GP Petronas / 50
3 / Lewis Hamilton / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 49
= / Fernando Alonso / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 49
5 / Sebastian Vettel / Red Bull Racing / 45
6 / Felipe Massa / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 41
7 / Robert Kubica / Renault F1 Team / 40
8 / Mark Webber / Red Bull Racing / 28
9 / Michael Schumacher / Mercedes GP Petronas / 10
= / Adrian Sutil / Force India F1 Team / 10
11 / Vitantonio Liuzzi / Force India F1 Team / 8
12 / Vitaly Petrov / Renault F1 Team / 6
13 / Rubens Barrichello / AT&T Williams / 5
14 / Jaime Alguersuari / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 2
15 / Nico Hulkenberg / AT&T Williams / 1
16 / Jarno Trulli / Lotus F1 Racing / 0
= / Heikki Kovalainen / Lotus F1 Racing / 0
= / Karun Chandhok / Hispania Racing Team / 0
= / Bruno Senna / Hispania Racing Team / 0
= / Timo Glock / Virgin Racing / 0
= / Lucas di Grassi / Virgin Racing / 0
= / Kamui Kobayashi / Sauber / 0
= / Pedro de la Rosa / Sauber / 0
= / Sebastien Buemi / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 0
F1 CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP 2010 (after round 4 of 19)
POSITION / TEAM / POINTS1 / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 109
2 / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 90
3 / Red Bull Racing / 73
4 / Mercedes GP Petronas / 60
5 / Renault F1 Team / 46
6 / Force India F1 Team / 18
7 / AT&T Williams / 6
8 / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 2
9 / Lotus F1 Racing / 0
= / Hispania Racing Team / 0
= / Virgin Racing / 0
= / Sauber / 0
The F1 2010 Calendar
DATES / GRAND PRIX / Ferrari PositionsMar 14 / Bahrain, Sakhir / Alonso:1st / Massa: 2nd
Mar 28 / Australia, Melbourne / Massa: 3rd / Alonso: 4th
Apr 04 / Malaysia, Kuala Lumpar / Massa: 7th / Alonso: DNF
Apr 18 / China, Shanghai / Alonso 4th / Massa 9th
May 09 / Spain, Catalunya
May 16 / Monaco, Monte Carlo
May 30 / Turkey, Istanbul
Jun 13 / Canada, Montreal
Jun 27 / Europe, Valencia
Jul 11 / Britain, Silverstone
Jul 25 / Germany, Hockenheim
Aug 01 / Hungary, Budapest
Aug 29 / Belgium, Spa-Francorchamps
Sep 12 / Italy, Monza
Sep 26 / Singapore, Singapore
Oct 10 / Japan, Suzuka
Oct 24 / Korea, Yeongam
Nov 07 / Brazil, Sao Paulo
Nov 14 / Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina Circuit
(ends)
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Release Number: Ferrari_452
Date of Issue: 13 December 2018. Time of Issue: 11:44:54