 Second
and third for Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen respectively in the
Chinese Grand Prix, but a mountain to climb for the Brazilian driver
with one round remaining in the world championship, as the winner today,
producing what one has to say was a faultless lights to flag
performance, was Lewis Hamilton. This means the Englishman extends his
lead over Massa to seven points with just ten to play for in Brazil in a
fortnight's time. In the Constructors' classification, Scuderia Ferrari
Marlboro leads its closest rivals, McLaren-Mercedes by eleven points.
As the cars gridded the forecast was for some chance of rain around the
mid-point of the race. Kimi was on the front row alongside pole man
Hamilton, while Felipe was behind the McLaren driver in third place,
with Fernando Alonso alongside him.
When the penultimate round of the world championship got underway, the
majority of the cars were on the prime tyre, but the Ferraris were on
the option. As the lights went out, the first three left the grid in
order, Hamilton, Kimi and Felipe, with Kovalainen getting ahead of
Alonso with the Renault man then getting the better of the Finn a few
corners later. Most progress was made by Webber, going from 16th to 12th
but he was running very light and would stop early. Trulli and Bourdais
tangled shortly after the start and dropped to the back of the field.
Trulli was the first to retire, on lap 3 in the Toyota. After four laps,
Hamilton had a 2.7 lead over Kimi with Massa a further 2.0 behind. The
leader then put in a fastest lap to extend his lead to 3.1. Alonso was
still in touch with Felipe, but behind the Renault a gap of almost 5
seconds passed before the rest of the field crossed the line.
By lap 10, Hamilton had extended his lead over Kimi to 3.9 and over
Felipe to 4.0. Behind them came Alonso, Kovalainen, Heidfeld, Vettel,
Kubica, Webber with Piquet completing the top ten. Next time round and
Kimi put in a fastest race lap, reducing the gap by 2 tenths. The best
battle at this stage involved Rosberg's Williams all over the back of
Glock's Toyota for 12th place, the Finn finally getting the upper hand.
 As
expected, Webber who had climbed as high as ninth, was the first to pit
on lap 12. There were now almost identical gaps between the lead trio so
that Hamilton to Massa was now 8.4 until Felipe refuelled on lap 14 for
9 seconds, with Alonso also coming in at this time. The race leader came
in next time round (9.4) as did Raikkonen. Kovalainen and Heidfeld now
were in the top two slots, followed by Hamilton, Vettel, Raikkonen,
Kubica and Massa seventh. Heidfeld pitted on 17, Kovalainen and Vettel
on 18. When Kubica finally made his refuelling stop on lap 25, the order
at the front returned to its original setting, with Hamilton 6.9 ahead
of Kimi, (the gap was coming down) followed by Felipe, (8.7 behind his
team-mate,) Alonso, Kovalainen and Heidfeld seventh. If Kimi was closing
the gap to the leader, Felipe was losing ground slightly to the Finn
around the halfway point of the 56 lap race. Lap 30 and the gap between
the lead two had grown again, to 7.5, as Kimi was in traffic. It grew to
8 two laps later.
Nakajima made his first stop and Webber his second on lap 32, while at
the front, everything remained the same: Hamilton, Kimi, Felipe, Alonso,
Kovalainen, Heidfeld, Kubica, Piquet, Vettel and Glock completing the
top ten. There was a change when Kovalainen got a puncture and had to
cruise back the pits. Alonso made his final stop from fourth on lap 36,
with Felipe making his second stop on lap 37 (7.5.) Next in the race,
leader followed in by Kimi.
 Lap
42, the gap between Hamilton and Kimi was over 12 seconds, but Felipe
was closing on his team-mate, only 2 seconds behind. On lap 49, Felipe
closed his team-mate down and went past to go second. But he was 16.5
seconds behind the McLaren man with only seven laps remaining. That's
how it stayed to the flag with Alonso fourth, Heidfeld fifth, Kubica,
sixth, Glock seventh and Piquet in the last points position eighth.
Stefano Domenicali:
"Today, we did the best we could at the end of a weekend when our main
rival proved to be superior to us in terms of performance, both over a
single lap and in terms of race pace. These fourteen points are very
important for the Constructors' championship, in which we have increased
our lead. Felipe has lost a bit of ground but now has nothing to lose,
and he will give it his best shot in his home race, where he can count
on the warm support of his fans. We will try and give our drivers a car
with more performance than we had today. To do that, we need to analyse
what did not work on this track, also taking into account that things
can change very quickly: at Fuji and in Singapore we were better than
our competitors in terms of performance, while here it was the opposite.
Felipe passing Kimi? Our drivers are well aware what is in the best
interests of the team and they acted accordingly. Indeed, events like
this have already happened this season in other teams, which is a normal
state of affairs in a sport like Formula 1."
Felipe Massa: "This is a great result for the team, less so for
me. Today's race was a difficult one: we were not quick enough to fight
against Hamilton. Losing two points does not mean that I have lost hope.
I will continue to fight right to the very end and I can't wait to race
in Interlagos in front of my home crowd: I will try my luck there - it
will be the first time for a Brazilian - which will be a further
incentive. There was no specific element that wasn't working on my car.
It's just that today it was impossible for me to win. I feel a bit as
though I'm in a penalty shoot-out in the football World Cup finals: we
have missed the first two shots, while the other team has scored and
therefore we cannot make any more mistakes and hope that they make
three. It will be very difficult, but not impossible as we saw last
year. The team is united and has faith: that is very important and nice
too."
Kimi Raikkonen: "Today I had a good car, but it was not quick
enough to beat our main competitor. At the start and after every tyre
change, Hamilton managed to pull away, while when it got near to the pit
stops I was able to go a bit quicker, but it was always too late. On top
of that, three times, I came up behind backmarkers who cost me valuable
time. We secured a very good result for the Constructors'
classification. Now we go to Brazil where we must try and get a one-two
finish and then we can see where we stand in both Championships. Felipe
passing me? I am part of a team and I am well aware what they expect of
me. I am out of the title fight and have to do the maximum because
Ferrari can achieve both its objectives. It's a simple as that."
Luca Baldisserri: "Our opponents were better than us today which
we must do something about. We suffered from a chronic lack of traction,
on both types of tyre. We worked on the car all weekend to try and
improve the situation, but evidently our efforts were not enough to
fight at the highest level. Therefore, second and third places represent
the maximum we could do in these conditions, although it does allow us
to make a step forward towards the Constructors' title, which is very
important for us. Now we must concentrate on analyzing our performance
at this track and on preparing for the Brazilian Grand Prix, where we
will do our utmost to pick up maximum points, as in fact we do at every
race."
Source - Ferrari Media |
