Lewis Hamilton has won the Chinese GP, preventing Sebastian Vettel from scoring a hat trick of wins. The reigning World Champion finished second ahead of teammate Mark Webber, who drove an amazing race from P18 to a podium spot. The Aussie deserves more than a pat on the back for his battling display which saw him make successful moves on the front runners late in the race – he’s our driver of the day!
Jenson Button finished fourth for McLaren, ahead of Nico Rosberg (Mercedes GP Petronas) and the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso. The rest of the points scoring positions were filled by Michael Schumacher, Vitaly Petrov (Lotus Renault) and Kamui Kobayashi for Sauber.
At the tail end, Team Lotus’ Kovalainen finished 16th and ahead of the Sauber of Sergio Perez and the Williams of Pastor Maldonado, but Perez had a drive through penalty for a collision with Adrian Sutil. Behind them was Trulli, who was ahead of the Virgins and HRTs. There was only one retirement – Jaime Alguersuari lost his right rear tyre from a botched pit stop.
It was all action from the start, where the McLarens sprinted off the line to jump pole man Vettel. Nico Rosberg, starting fourth, had a go at Seb too, but failed. Button-Hamilton-Vettel was the front order for the early part of the race. Mark Webber, starting from P18 after yesterday’s qualifying nightmare, didn’t make much headway at the start as he battled with the Saubers and Williams.
This season’s Pirellis degrade faster, forcing pit stops for more action. And the pit stops played a big part in today’s results. Leader Button and Vettel dived in the pits the same time for their first stop, and Jenson made a mistake by driving into Red Bull’s slot! He realised it soon after, but those wasted seconds saw Vettel jump him. McLaren’s bad pit stop day was followed by Massa jumping Hamilton shortly after.
It wasn’t that straightforward to watch in the middle part, as drivers with different strategies merged on track. Some such as Vettel and the Ferraris chose two stops while the others like Rosberg switched from two to three stops. The McLarens did three stops as well, and that looks like the better option on hindsight. The fresh tyres of Hamilton and Button saw them overtake Massa and Rosberg in the final stages of the race.
Button took considerably more time than his teammate in passing Massa/Rosberg, which left Lewis to do a sole pursuit of Vettel. He caught up pretty soon after and the duo served up a nice duel, with Lewis finally succeeding on lap 52, four laps from the finish. Without KERS (again) and on worn tyres, Vettel was the target of Button, but he couldn’t get close enough.
Meanwhile, Mark Webber was making a late charge, but unlike in Malaysia, his attack paid off handsomely in Shanghai. Successive moves on Massa, Rosberg and Button gave him a deserved third. He got within striking distance of Jenson on the second last lap and made a move at turn 14. Button fought back and looked good to retake him, but Mark managed to make it stick. If he had a few more laps, Vettel would have been in danger!
Outside of the front runners, Schumacher was involved in a few duels, first with Alonso and then with Webber. Toro Rosso’s good qualifying result didn’t turn into a good race day – both Alguersuari and Buemi had poor starts before the former retired. Force India’s Paul di Resta also had quite a bit of camera time. He outdrove Sutil but finished just out of the points.
The changes made this season – KERS, DRS, tyres with shorter life – seems to have successfully injected more racing action so far. Next stop is Turkey on May 8.
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woohoo! this season’s ‘FORMULA’ is comin to fruition, exciting race! 2 thumbs up for webber!
Agree! This season is very exciting. Webber was fantastic to get to the podium from far back in the field. Same goes for Hamilton, good thing he ignored his teams suggestion to cruise or else he would have stuck behind Button and would not have overtaken Vettel to be first.
Congrats for the two Malaysian teams for getting to into the points.
quite boring if u ask me
wat to make it exciting race? someone to die on track? drive ovally? or put some obstacles such as gravel or desert?….terangi saya
F1 is boring? nah.. that’s because you’re too busy hanging on justin bieber on youtube
baby baby baby oooooohh baby baby nooo
Slow! Where’s Harve?
Hmmmph… not liking this. Vettel almost can get a hattrick, but Hamilton had to spoil that!!
Meanwhile, Webber was THE MAN of the race. It’s been awhile since we have someone who actually can finish far higher than his qualifying position might suggest. Bravo Webber!!
LRGP’s race could’ve been better… at least Petrov got some points though.
Heh, Tony Lotus continues to playing around at the back field. Good thing we don’t hear TF’s loud mouth much lately.
Maaf Datuk!
Standing in for Harve, who’s busy this weekend. He’ll be back, don’t worry :)
Heheh, good thing you’re around Danny ;) :P
Thanks for standing in, no hard feelings, just being cheeky :P
According to his FB, he’s not there as he’s out sick.
Anyways, the racing’s all artificial. Once Pirelli gets the hang of making F1 tyres that are durable, all those racing moves will be gone!
Saw him checking out some BMWs at BSC on Friday. So fast sick?
Sounds related… what was Harve doing with the beemer? :P
Harve? I was talking about Fernandes
haha.. so this guys really love racing eee.
All praise for Hamilton and Webber. Rosberg and Button should have raced harder to make Vettel come back to earth. They were so close…………. Remember no one wins forever or else the rules will change again, remember Ferrari and Micheal Schumacher?
Developed a kind of intense hatred to both gold cars looked so good that nearly everyone passed them today….hahaha. People’s money put into waste.
As opposed to the Green-Yellow cars that’s totally hopeless? Even more people’s money wasted. At least the gold team’s consecutively scored points. The Green-Yellow team? Last race said they were close to STR and now STR so in front, they’re still in the back!
For a team in only its second year, it did exhibit quite a substantial improvement over the other 2 rookies. Never underestimate Mike Gascoyne (Fernandes believes in good people). They’re already showing lap times on par with the midfield (towards the end), and in fact were able to finish ahead of a williams and STR on the road.
At least the mechanics kept all the wheels on, unlike a certain team (Renault had a lovely tyre falling off last year).
they have to score point to get higher position, they need the prize money to cover higher cost from renault engine and redbull gearbox, it all about money
off course lah about money..
can you list a name of team that enter Formula 1 just for pure charity and don’t give a damn about money?
even Ferrari keep chasing for the FOM money meh
yes. to be fair, the team is just 18 months old. they already shown some impressive performance by finished in 16th and ahead of williams and sauber which both are established team. we should give them some time and to all haters, you gonna kiss tony’s ass soon!
Forza Team Lotus!!
waste people’s money?which team green-yellow team? are you talking about the same team that i’m thinking?
PRIVATELY funded team by TF. Just dont like anything to do with Proton, disgusting. Perodua much better.
Dont forget AP Money too. ~~
From Naza n Co.
Exactly what i meant, just trying to poke Bob vettel for talking BS.either he doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking or maybe just maybe he’s a LRGP cybertroop????
Oh yeah, TF, give me back my money! I dunno, this people says you use my money to fund your team. I want to know when did you come to my house to break my tabung cap ayam and take all the coins in it.
Oh, one more thing TF. Next time when you’re start a business or another sport team, make sure you makes profit or win on your first try! No matter what, okay. That is what ‘we’ Malaysia used to. We used to win on the first instance. We used to make profit on the first day of business. We used to get laid on our first date! This nonsense of not winning and still at the back of the pack is really making us want to hates you even more.
Don’t forget arrr TF. Oh oh.. One more thing, can you make sure your AirAsia service is on par if not better than MAS but we still will be paying dirt cheap for the service. You know, we never used to get lousy service in our daily life.
Heh…
may i know how old are you? you are so….
Yeah yeah.. I know you’re more matured than me. It is just a banter. Grow older, will you.
i suggest you ask fully GLC such as Proton and Petronas first
haha.. dude, hilarious. i do hate TF for certain reason but i can accept this. we are what we are!!! hehe
Cheers mate! That made my day! :D
Viva Mclaren…viva hamilton…
Superb race…great overtaking by Hamilton!!
Go defeat this ‘drink company’ team in significant margin….go go Mclaren
Yeah………Mclaren
haters will hate…
Kovalainen did a good job out there… I hoped this performance will continue… I was thinking they’re almost hopeless already but it seems they’re not…
Hamilton did a good trick there… Vettel’s losing the grip as his tires degrades… and I should say Webber’s is the driver of the race… who could’ve thought he could do that!!!
Hamilton and Webber was superb, especially Webber. It remind me of Mika Hakinen & Kimi Raikonen, from last to podium! The best ever F1 was back to 2006 (if Im not mistaken) when Kimi overtake Fisichella at Sizuka at the last lap. I hope Pirelli maintain the tyre like that, it make come back to F1 after all changes in rules & regulations..
the victory is not longer.. hehe
brilliant getaway by button + hamilton at start.
button could hav got 3rd pos if not for the wrong pit lane incident ^^