Fernando Alonso showed amazing pace as he roared to a dominant victory in the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday to give Ferrari their first win of the Formula One season. In a dry race, dictated by tyre choices and frequent pitstops, the Spaniard beat Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen by 10.1 seconds to make amends for crashing out of the previous race in Malaysia. Lewis Hamilton completed a trio of world champions on the podium with third place for Mercedes after he had started from P1 on the grid thanks to a brilliant qualifying lap on Saturday.
Raikkonen had started second on the grid but made a slow getaway and was immediately passed by both Ferraris. The Finn fell to fourth place before battling back through the many pitstops and despite having a broken front wing after a coming together with Sergio Perez.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel finished fourth, just behind Hamilton after a thrilling chase to the chequered flag, with McLaren’s Jenson Button fifth to ensure five champions in the top five places.
“We’re not quite there yet, but we’re not so far away,” Mercedes principal Ross Brawn – whose team won in China from pole last year with Nico Rosberg – told Hamilton over the radio.
The teams had been complaining the whole weekend that the Pirelli soft tyres were so delicate that they lasted only a lap or two in top condition. Pirelli had created the delicate tyre on purpose, of course, to spice up the show.
With just 13 laps left in the race, Alonso suddenly made his third pit stop after Lap 41 and lost the lead to Vettel. Meanwhile Hamilton did the fastest lap of the race and sat just 1.1 second behind Raikkonen. But after his pit stop, Alonso, with his newer tyres, retook the lead from Vettel at the beginning of Lap 43. Vettel then found himself at the mercy of Raikkonen and Hamilton for his position on the podium, as his tyres were wearing out. Then after Lap 51, Vettel, too, had to make a final pit stop and he dropped from second position to fourth. And although his team told him to push and race to the finish, he was 11.5 seconds from Hamilton in third place with just five laps left in the race. Vettel tried for all he was worth and crossed the finish line just .2 seconds behind Hamilton, who in turn was 2.1 seconds behind Raikkonen.
Sources:http://www.thenewsonline.es
“My tyres were shot at the end, so there was nothing I could do to hold off Sebastian for much longer, so to get on the podium, I’m really happy,” said Hamilton.
Tags: and, fantastico, Fernando, Ferrari
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