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What about this for the new Ferrari car. |
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China race |
Chinese GP: Rosberg Claims Maiden WinSunday 15th April 2012Nico Rosberg kept it neat and tidy and avoided all pit stop woes as he raced to his maiden Formula One victory in the Chinese GP.
Starting from pole position, Rosberg pulled away from the chasing pack - led by his team-mate Michael Schumacher - and only relinquished the lead in the pit stops.
Despite concerns about Mercedes' tyre wear, Rosberg needed just two stops to win his first grand prix by 20.6s over Jenson Button, who fought his way back from a pit stop error. Button's McLaren mechanics struggled to attach his left rear in his final stop, costing the Brit dearly as he dropped well down the order.
Lewis Hamilton finished third ahead of the Red Bulls in a race that exploded into life in the last 11 laps.
Race Report Grid Start Further back Mark Webber got another bad start and lost places, but not as bad as team-mate Sebastian Vettel who was very slow away. "Normally I'm quick, but today I was very late" admitted Sebastian after the race. As a result he got stuck behind the Williams and even found himself duelling with one of the Caterhams.
Bruno Senna missed his braking into Turn 1 and lost parts of his front wing on the back of Felipe Massa's Ferrari (but didn't need it replaced), elsewhere there was contact in front as carbon fibre flew past Senna's onboard camera.
On the opening lap Mark Webber managed to get past Alonso and then Alonso retook him at the end of the lap.
Positions at the end of Lap One After the opening flurry of activity things settled down. Jenson Button had Kimi Raikkonen in the DRS tow and behind Kimi, Lewis Hamilton had Sergio Perez in the tow, but nobody was making a move. Everyone was wary of pushing too early in a race where tyre management would be critical.
Mark Webber pitted for new tyres at the end of Lap 6 and rejoined the race in P20. At the front, Nico Rosberg was steadily going away from Michael Schumacher and by Lap 7 had a 3.5 second gap. Michael Schumacher now had a train of Button, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Perez and Kobayashi.
This all changed on Lap 9 when other teams started to pit (with Mark Webber quickly reducing the fastest lap behind them all). Kobayashi and Vettel came in on Lap 9; Raikkonen and Hamilton on Lap 10; Button on Lap 11; and Schumacher, Alonso and Senna on Lap 12.
Hamilton and Raikkonen exited the pitlane side by side, the Lotus being released straight into the path of the Mclaren and running side by side down the pitlane till Kimi ran out of room at the end. They rejoined the track right by Mark Webber and though Lewis Hamilton was able to get past the Red Bull, Kimi could not, trying very hard at Turn 6 where Mark closed the door on an outside move from the Finn.
Rosberg was able to keep his pace the longest and while he was pitting on Lap 13 eyes turned to Michael Schumacher who'd just lost a place to Jenson Button in the pitstops. There had been consternation in the Mercedes pit directly after Schumi had been released from his pitbox and later in the lap he had to park the car with a loose wheel. (The FIA would investigate for an unsafe release).
With Rosberg pitting, this left Sergio Perez in the lead from Felipe Massa who'd started on the harder tyre.
Positions on Lap 14: 1.Perez (not stopped), 2.Massa (not stopped), 3.Rosberg, 4.Button, 5.Hamilton, 6.Webber, 7.Raikkonen, 8.Alonso, 9.Kobayashi, 10.Grosjean, 11.Vettel, 12.Senna, 13.Ricciardo, 14.DiResta.
When Perez finally pitted on Lap 16 he exited just in front of Sebastian Vettel in P10, while Massa would fall to P14 when he came in at the end of Lap 18.
On Lap 19 Rosberg led from Button and all the pre-race predictions, that the Mercedes would eat up its tyres were not coming true. The reverse was the case with the W03 able to run longest on the soft compound Option.
The gaps on Lap 20 were: Rosberg 4.7 to Button 2.1 to Hamilton 3.4 to Webber 0.6 to Raikkonen 0.5 to Alonso. But just as we got a settled running order established Mark Webber kicked off the second round of pit-stops by coming in at the end of Lap 21. With the Aussie just three seconds behind the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, the team reacted by bringing Lewis in for his second stop - and a lap after that Jenson Button.
Button was released behind Vettel and Perez, but Hamilton was re-inserted behind Felipe Massa, and because Massa had relatively new rubber, proved difficult to overtake. Hamilton finally took him with a hestitant pass at Turn 6 on Lap 26 and a lap later Webber was past as well at the same turn
Meanwhile Button using his DRS and younger tyres was able to get past Perez and then Vettel and by Lap 31 it was looking promising for the Brit. He was putting in 1:41s while Rosberg ahead could only manage 1.43s. On Lap 32 Button showed his intent by putting in the fastest lap of the race so far with a 1:40.908
Positions on Lap 33: 1.Rosberg (one stop), 2.Button, 3.Perez (one stop) 4.Hamilton, 5.Webber, 6.Alonso, 7.Massa (one stop), 8.Raikkonen 9.Kobayashi, 10.Maldonado, 11.Vettel, 12.Grosjean
Now Hamilton found himself stuck behind Sergio Perez, the Sauber having great top speed down the long back straight and enabling him to defend in the one place Hamilton would hope to get past using DRS. Perez locked his front tyres on several occasions and the delay allowed Mark Webber to close up and even try an unlikely move round the outside of Lewis Hamilton into Turn 6 on Lap 34. Raikkonen had failed to get past Webber there and Webber failed to make it stick as well.
Webber pitted for tyres, Hamilton soldiered on behind Perez and Alonso took advantage by closing right up to the back of Lewis Hamilton until Perez finally pitted on Lap 35 (to rejoin in P13). This finally allowed the McLaren to charge off in pursuit of his team-mate.
Mark Webber's interesting afternoon got even more spectacular when he launched his Red Bull RB8 off the kerbs at Turn 13 and the car was temporarily airborne. Webber survived the moment and carried on regardless. He was anxious to keep in touch with the Hamilton vs Alonso battle, having stopped earlier than the pair of them. They both duly stopped on Lap 38 and McLaren showed that they are up with the speed of the Ferrari pitstops by keeping Hamilton in front. They were both able to keep their position in front of Perez.
A lap later and Jenson Button came in for a stop that would rob him of any chance of victory. With Rosberg stopping on Lap 34 (for his second of what would be two stops) Button was now in front on the road. But problems with the left rear tyre delayed Jenson a precious extra six seconds and instead of leaving the pits behind Rosberg and in clear air, he was stuck behind Vettel who was stuck behind Raikkonen. They were both going to run out of tyres sooner or later, but JB was held.
Positions on Lap 42: 1.Rosberg 2.Raikkonen, 3.Vettel, 4.Button (3 stops), 5.Grosjean, 6.Webber (3 stops), 7.Senna 8.Hamilton (3 stops), 9.Maldonado, 10.Alonso (3 stops). 11.Perez
On Lap 43 Fernando Alonso shaped up to overtake Pastor Maldonado, ran wide onto the marbles and off the track losing a place to Perez in the process. At this stage, the circuit looked to have an avenue of the racing line surrounded by tyre marbles and any driver venturing off them had to be pretty certain it was worth the excursion.
By this point in the race Rosberg had a 23 second cushion to Kimi Raikkonen who was holding up a train of cars from his position on ailing tyres in P2. Such was the fear of the marbles that he had gathered seven cars behind all keen not to get it wrong and lose loads of places to the cars behind.
On lap 45 it all kicked off with Grosjean running wide and losing places. As he fought to regain his position he ran side by side with the Williams of Maldonado through Turn 12 and 13 and there was contact between the cars. Grosjean managed to keep in front down the back straight as Maldonado tried to get past the Lotus and Perez - using the Sauber's great top speed - tried to get past the Williams. Maldonado managed to outbreak both Perez and Grosjean, take the inside line at the hairpin and seemingly make the overtake on Grosjean. Grosjean used the wide line around the turn to cut back inside and re-take Maldonado before the final turn. It was great driving.
A lap later and Alonso was past Perez and on Lap 47 Raikkonen led an incredible train of 12 cars. Positions on Lap 47: 1.Rosberg 2.Raikkonen, 3.Vettel, 4.Button, 5.Webber, 6.Hamilton 7.Senna 8.Grosjean 9.Maldonado, 10.Alonso 11.Perez, 12.Kobayashi, 13.DiResta. - and there was 10 seconds between Kimi Raikkonen in second and Paul DiResta in thirteenth!
Lap 48 saw the most dramatic change of fortunes with Kimi Raikkonen finally overtaken by Vettel and being caught up in successive overtakes as he dropped from 2nd place to finish the lap behind Vettel, Button,Hamilton and Webber. As the chequered flag approached drivers decided to make their moves and Laps 48 to 51 saw the order thoroughly shaken up. Hamilton got by Webber when he went off-track in his attempts to get past Raikkonen too quickly.
Kimi's tyres had fallen off the cliff and he ended up in P12 at the end of Lap 49 - mugged by everyone. Button passed Vettel going into the hairpin and then Hamilton began to shadow Vettel with Webber right in his mirrors.
Further back Sergio Perez even forced his own team-mate onto the grass going into the braking zone of the hairpin, but Kobayashi managed to keep control of his car and got the car braked to make the overtaking move. Perez then fell back and on Lap 54 the timing screens showed that Maldonado, Alonso and Kobayashi crossed the line together - separated by 0.00 of a second and going into Turn 1 three abreast. Maldonado held out from Alonso and Kobayashi.
A lap later and Hamilton outbraked Vettel into the hairpin and the World Champ almost got him back going into the final corner - causing Hamilton to do some creative car positioning on the following straight. Mark Webber tried to come past, too, but was able to pass his team-mate on the penultimate lap as Vettel's tyres gave up. (A geat move round the utside of the hairpin)
Up ahead of this mayhem Nico Rosberg had a serene 20-second advantage and was able to bring the car home for an un-pressured debut win. Button was second but thought he could have made the winner work a lot harder. Hamilton finished third in front of Webber, Vettel in fifth, an excellent sixth place from a recovering Grosjean. Bruno Senna had far less dramas than his team-mate to take seventh place whereas the onboard camera of Maldonado saw a tremendous amount of action.
It had been a spectacular grand prix and unlike most, had exploded into life in the last 10 laps. Mercedes were unused to the idea of celebrating or finding their way to the podium, but given that Rosberg has proved that he can keep his Pirellis intact - it won't be his last visit this season.
FH
1. Rosberg Mercedes 1h36:26.929 |
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Malaysia race  |
Malaysia GP: Alonso Wins, Perez Steals The ShowSunday 25th March 2012Fernando Alonso put Ferrari's woes to one side to win the Malaysian GP, but the day belonged to Sergio Perez who finished P2.
After all their pre-season problems and struggles in qualifying, it was a jubilant moment for the Italian outfit as Alonso came from P8 on the grid to win the rain-affected race at the Sepang International Circuit.
The plaudits, though, will go to Sergio 'Checo' Perez and Sauber as the Mexican put in the drive of his life to claim his first podium finish. Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton finished a distant P3 and he was followed across the finish line by Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen.
Spots of rain started to fall with twenty minutes to go before the start. Ten minutes before the start Lotus boss Eric Boullier was predicting that it would be delayed because of the increasing intensity of what was now light rain. However at the top of the hour the cars went off on their parade lap with everyone on Inters except HRT who had opted for the full wets. Only Karthikeyan got away, though and de la Rosa had to start from the pitlane.
Grid As the lights went out the two McLarens got away with well, but with no repeat of Jenson Button's heroics from Melbourne, Lewis Hamilton claiming the line for Turn 1. Behind them, Michael Schumacher got bogged down at the start and was uncharacteristically slow away. Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber moved alongside the German going into Turn 1.
Grosjean got ahead, but was on the edge of control. Webber got past him into Turn 4, while Schumacher was pushed into a spin by Grosjean who lost the rear end of the car at the exit of the corner. Schumi fell a long way back and Grosjean dropped down the order. At this point in the race there was very heavy rain in Sector 1 but little round the rest of the track, even so Sergio Perez decided it would be a good move to duck into the pitlane and change to full wets at the end of Lap 1.
Positions at the end of Lap 1 On Lap 2, Di Resta and Bruno Senna came in for full wets, on Lap 3 Massa pitted from P10 and on Lap 4 Jenson Button led in Alonso, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo and Petrov. As the rain grew in intensity it became inevitable that everyone should move onto wets. Grosjean had spun off when his Lotus aquaplaned off the track. In came Hamilton, Webber, Vettel, Maldonado, Raikkonen, Kobayashi and Schumacher.
Button had gained time during his one lap advantage on the full wets but he still came round just behind Hamilton as he emerged from the pits.
The rain was getting heavier lap by lap with aquaplaning at Turn 5 and Jenson Button reporting: "the last sector is like a lake" referring to the standing water at Turn 12. Perez was taking full advantage of having changed to wets early and was up to an incredible P3, while Narain Karthikeyan who had started on wets was in P10 for HRT.
Around the circuit there was thunder and lightning and a power cut that dimmed the lights. On Lap 7 timing screens said the race had been red-flagged, but that was amended straight away to a Safety Car. As the SC collected everyone behind it for a lap the rain intensified, another Red Flag message came up, backed up by written confirmation from Race Control that this was a real Red Flag.
Positions behind the Safety Car The cars formed up on the grid and drivers got out and prepared for the wait Finally at 1704 local time Race Director Charlie Whiting deemed the rain light enough to have a restart behind the Safey Car at 1714.
Because all tyres had to be wets behind a Safety Car start, Jean-Eric Vergne who had not changed from his Inters, got a free set of Wets without having to drop time for a pit-stop. The cars cruised behind the Safety Car for Laps 10, 11,12 and it came in at the end of Lap 13. Lewis Hamilton stacked the cars up on the back straight before the line. At this stage many were predicting a quick change onto Inters as the circuit rapidly dried out. Button didn't even wait for the restart and was in for Inters along with many of the midfield - no-one else from the frontrunners.
It proved to be the wise choice because his first middle sector on the Inters was faster than anyone and at the end of the lap everyone else dived into the pitlane. Already on Lap 14 Alonso had got past Mark Webber, to take P3.
In the pitlane Hamilton was delayed because he couldn't be released into the path of the incoming Felipe Massa and so when Lewis Hamilton got back on track he was now behind Alonso, but still in front of Jenson Button. But only by a few car lengths. Leading now was Sergio Perez with Sebastian Vettel, who were the only ones not to change to Inters and they would follow suit a lap later.
Button then made the mistake that would effectively end his race, sliding into the HRT of Kathikeyan who was ahead of him on track position (having not stopped for a change of tyres) and deranging his front wing. The pit-stop made with the cars still relatively bunched up cast him back to P.21. Although he found speed at first he reported that: "the front tyre is shuddering the whole time." And had to change the set again.
Alonso had made it in and out of the pit very quickly, so when Perez stopped for tyres he emerged only just in front of the Ferrari driver who nipped past him in a masterly overtaking move through Turns 1 and 2 to take the lead.
Positions on Lap 16: Hamilton was suffering similar problems to Button and while the McLarens had been the fastest of anyone through the middle sector in the dry, now Hamilton was losing time to both the Sauber and Ferrari in front of him. Fernando was edging out a gap to Sergio 'Checo' Perez, but the gap to Hamilton was greater. Behind the Brit, Nico Rosberg had gained places by staying out on the full wets and was delaying Sebastian Vettel. On Lap 21 Rosberg was a whole 1.1 seconds slower that Hamilton in the middle sector alone.
By Lap 23 Vettel had found a way past with grip on the outside of Turn 1 and soon a flood of cars behind Rosberg were finding their way past. He finally pitted for Inters at the end of Lap 27 and resumed back down in P16.
At the front, Alonso was making Italy (and Spain) proud again with a series of Fastest Laps on Lap 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26. By the time we got to Lap 30 he had stretched out the gap to Perez to 7.7 seconds, while Perez had 7.7 seconds on Hamilton and Lewis has put 8.4 seconds between himself and fourth place Vettel. Raikkonen was a further 7.3 back in fifth, closely followed by Mark Webber who was within a second of the Finn.
The quick lap times continued with Alonso setting more Fastest Laps on Laps 30, 31 and 32. But just as the timing screen went purple to show the latest time for Alonso, so it was being superceded by Perez a few seconds later. Perez was then fastest on Laps 31, 32 and 33. The gap came down to 5.7 seconds.
Although there were reports that there was a rain shower coming or rain near the circuit and even a few drops of rain actually falling, a dry line was being established and the fastest time falling almost every lap. Pirelli's Paul Hembery suggested that the move to dry tyres would be at a lap time of around 1:52s.
On Lap 36 Perez put in a fastest 1:54.738 to close the gap to 3.9 seconds, a lap later Alonso put in a 1:54.7 and Perez aced it with a 1:54 dead closing the gap to 3.2. With 20 laps to go an upset looked on the cards.
Daniel Ricciardo was the first onto slick on Lap 38 and by lap 39 Perez had got the gap to Alonso down to just 1.3 seconds. Ricciardo was soon the fastest man on the circuit and at the end of Lap 39 Mark Webber and the midfield cars pitted.
Alonso, Vettel and Raikkonen pitted a lap later, but crucially Sauber and McLaren left Perez and Hamilton out on the track. When they rejoined they had both lost time - Vettel was much closer to Hamilton and Perez had lost four seconds to Alonso and was now 5.7 back. Yet again he started to haul in the gap with some fast laps and by Lap 46 he was just 2.3 behind with ten laps to go.
Vettel was also closing on Hamilton but on Lap 47 shredded his left rear tyre against the front wing of an HRT and limped back to the pits scattering debris along the back straight as he went.
Positions on Lap 50 By Lap 50 'Checo' was sitting on Alonso's gearbox in a much faster car and looking for a way past. Right at this time his engineer came on the radio with what could be considered a contentious/conservative call: "Checo be careful, we need this position, be careful."
Straight away, Perez went off track at Turn 14 and lost five seconds, handing the race to Alonso. Although the Mexican closed the gap in the six laps to the flag he'd given himself too big a gap - he was in no danger from the following McLaren.
Maldonado's engine started to smoke on Lap 54 and he gave up the final points position to Schumacher as he retired the car. This gave rise to a comedy exchange on the radio to Sebastian Vettel from his engineer. At one moment it was "retire the car, retire the car" then it was "stay out, stay out", then it was "stop the car, stop the car". Some thought that it might be a tactical retirement to get a new gearbox but Vettel's car still came up on the timing screens as P11 at the chequered flag - 75.5 seconds down on the jubilant winner Fernando Alonso.
Second was the hugely impressive Sergio Perez who may well have booked his place in the No.2 Ferrari in 2013, followed by Lewis Hamilton, a resurgent Mark Webber and an equally impressive Kimi Raikkonen who had managed his wet tyres far better than Rosberg had to bring the car home in 5th and claim fastest lap on Lap 53 - a 1:40.722
Bruno Senna made up for the Williams heartbreak from Melbourne to finish 6th ahead of Di Resta in 7th, Vergne in 8th (this time not mugged on the last lap), Hulkenberg in 9th and Schumacher in 10th. Jenson Button finished 79 seconds off the leader - his two extra pit-stops giving him five trips down pitlane as opposed to the winner's three.
Ferrari will be under no illusion that their season is suddenly back on course, but Alonso's win will be an inspiration to make rapid progress. And right now everyone will want to know the exact details of Sergio Perez's contract.
FH
Results |
Australia race |
Australia GP: Button Claims Aussie HonoursSunday 18th March 2012Jenson Button beat team-mate and pole sitter Lewis Hamilton into the first corner and never looked back as he won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The 2009 World Champion was in complete control of the race as he claimed the early-season honours ahead of the Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton. Vettel scrapped his way through the field from P6 on the grid but was handedsome good fortune when a Safety Car gifted him second place ahead of Hamilton.
The success stories of qualifying on Saturday, Romain Grosjean and Michael Schumacher, both had races to forget as they both retired early.
It was a sunny Albert Park that greeted the cars with an ambient temperature of 22C and the track at 28C. As the tyre choices were revealed on the parade lap, only Perez, Vergne and Petrov were going for the medium Prime tyre. Perez had taken a 5-place grid penalty for changing a gearbox and was starting from the back. Both HRTS were missing after failing to achieve 107% of the qualifying time on Saturday.
When the red lights went out Jenson Button got a great start from P2 on the grid and was able to take the inside line into Turn 1 and edge ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the lead. Further back, the two Mercedes both had great starts with Michael Schumacher up to third place and Nico Rosberg coming through from seventh on the grid to take fourth.
Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber had poor starts and lost places. Webber was sandwiched between Vergne on the outside and Hulkenberg on the inside and radioed back that he thought he had damage after they both tried to get onto his piece of tarmac at Turn 1.
Home boy Daniel Ricciardo and Bruno Senna had a coming together and both had to limp back to the pits at the end of the opening lap. However making up for their dismal qualifying on Saturday, the Ferraris launched themselves forward, Fernando claimed P8 from twelfth on the grid and Felipe Massa had an even more impressive charge to P10 from sixteenth on the grid.
Nico Hulkenberg's ill-advised contact with Webber on the opening lap put him out of the race.
Positions at the end of Lap 1 1.Button, 2.Hamilton, 3.Schumacher, 4.Rosberg, 5.Vettel, 6.Grosjean, 7.Maldonado, 8.Alonso, 9.Webber, 10.Massa, 11.Kobayashi, 12.Perez, 13.Glock, 14.Raikkonen
The jostling for positions that so often ends on Lap 1 continued right through Lap 2 in Australia. Sebastian Vettel hammered another nail into the theory that he can't overtake by getting past Nico Rosberg's Mercedes for P4, while a feisty move from Pastor Maldonado saw Romain Grosjean punted off into the gravel after inexpertly trying to defend his place. From P3 on the grid, a poor start and race exit on Lap 2 was not the start Lotus would have wanted for Grosjean but Raikkonen was still running and was up to P12 by Lap 2.
At the front, Jenson Button set a series of successive fastest laps to establish a clear gap to Hamilton. By Lap 5 he had a 3.1 second advantage. Lap 6 was the first time that he didn't set the timing screens to purple (fastest). It was all very reminiscent of Vettel in 2011.
Pastor Maldonado's adventures were continuing as he went off track on Lap 4 allowing Alonso up to P6 and Massa up to P8. He wasn't the only one. Sebastian Vettel misjudged his braking into Turn 1 on Lap 6 allowing Nico Rosberg to close up again. The two ran side by side with Alonso in close attendance to see if he could capitalise. In the end Vettel hung on to keep his place.
Having qualified well, the much anticipated fall-off in Mercedes lap times, caused by tyre wear, was being realised. Michael had dropped 6.5 seconds behind Hamilton by Lap 7 and Nico Rosberg was coming under pressure from Fernando Alonso for his P5. They weren't the only ones. By Lap 9 Felipe Massa was reporting back that he had no grip in his rear tyres and he was holding up a gaggle of Perez, Kobayashi and Raikkonen..
Sebastian Vettel caught up with P3 Schumacher on Lap 10 and just as he was figuring a way to get past him, Michael obliged by pulling off the road and then limping back to the pits - seemingly a gearbox problem putting an end to his day's work.
At this stage, Lap 11, Button had a 3.3 second advantage over Hamilton who was ten seconds clear of Vettel.
On Lap 12 Massa started off the round of early pitstops for tyres, followed a lap later by Rosberg and on Lap 14 Fernando Alonso. It had been predicted that the stops would begin around Laps 16 to 18, so this was much earlier than expected.
By Lap 15, both McLarens were running laps in the 1:34s and Sebastian Vettel, now in P3, was catching them with 1:33s. Button pitted on Lap 16 and Vettel followed him in. Lewis Hamilton's one extra lap on the old tyres cost him dear - a disastrous 1:36.403. This meant that when the cars reassembled after the pit-stops his lead over Vettel had shrunk from 10 seconds to 2.8.
Positions on Lap 17: 1.Button, 2.Raikkonen (not stopped), 3.Perez (not stopped), 4.Hamilton, 5.Vettel, 6.Vergne (not stopped), 7.Alonso 8.Rosberg, 9.Webber, 10.Maldonado, 11.Massa, 12.Kobayashi
Hamilton struggled to get past the yet-to-stop Sergio Perez and lost more time to Vettel. By Lap 23 he was just 1.2 seconds in front of him and decided to put his foot down to open up the gap. Hamilton reduced the fatest lap to 1:31.7 on Lap 24 and 1:31.5 on Lap 26 and by Lap 30 he'd closed his deficit to Jenson to just 9.4 seconds but only opened a 2.5 second gap on Vettel.
Not far behind them Mark Webber was hard on the tail of Nico Rosberg and complaining that the German was "moving all over the place" and on Lap 31 the Mercedes driver had to take to the exit road on the inside of the fast chicane to maintain momentum and his position ahead of the Red Bull. Whether or not that was a fair defence of the place became a moot point when he pitted at the end of the lap.
Released from following Rosberg, Mark Webber started to move forward with a new sense of urgency and set the fastest lap of 1:31.098 on Lap 32, his target the P4 of Fernando Alonso. Before he could quite get there Alonso obliged by diving into the pits for more tyres, handing over the place.
At the end of Lap 36 both McLarens followed suit. At this stage Button had a 10.8 second lead over Hamilton and so the team were able to get both cars in and out on the same lap. They had lost a lot of time when the tyres started to go off after the first stint and were not going to risk waiting an extra lap for Hamilton again
Little did they know this was again the wrong thing to do as at that moment Vitaly Petrov's steering failed on the Caterham and he failed to find a safe place to park it, leaving it in an awkward position on the start/finish straight. The Safety Car was brought out and because Hamilton had to slow for the incident and Vettel was past it, Vettel got in and out of the pits and took his position. Many more cars took advantage of the opportunity to stop for tyres and the field compressed. Heading for the restart after Lap 41 the order was: 1.Button, 2.Vettel, 3.Hamilton, 4.Webber, 5.Maldonado, 6.Alonso, 7.Perez, 8.Rosberg, 9.Raikkonen, 10.Kobayashi, 11.DiResta, 12.Vergne
When the race was restarted on Lap 42 Jenson Button produced one of the restarts of his career crossing the line at the end of the lap with a massive 2.5 gap to Vettel. He then reeled off a succession of fastest laps on Laps 43, 44, 45, 46 and 47. Of the top four it looked like it would be Hamilton pressuring Vettel that might bring a result, but Vettel edged out a slight lead to take himself outside the DRS zone and then Hamilton came under pressure from Webber. In the closing stages of the race all four would put in fastest laps but the order wouldn't change and 2.9 seconds was the closest Vettel would ever get to Button.
Pastor Maldonado looked glued to the back of Fernando Alonso's Ferrari for the 17-lap sprint to the flag, while further back down the field there was an all-Brazilian clash between Bruno Senna's Williams and Felipe Massa's Ferrari at Turn 4, Massa pushing Senna out wide and the two making contact. The incident would be investigated by the stewards afterwards.
Nico Rosberg's tyres were fading again and he found himself under pressure from Kobayashi and Raikkonen who were continuing their ding-dong encounter from earlier. All of them were catching the one-stopping Sergio Perez who was hanging on to soft rubber that he had changed before half distance.
It all began to kick of on the final lap when Pastor Maldonado tried to cut too much kerb in a bid to mount an overtaking move on Alonso. His car lost control and span into the barriers - his precious P6 position for Williams up in smoke. Rosberg attempted to get past Perez and the two came together damaging Rosberg's car and putting him out of the points, while wounding Perez's chances.
Kobyashi gratefully swooped through to take P6, Raikkonen passed Perez in the penultimate corner to take P8, while not far behind Daniel Ricciardo got ahead of Toro Rosso team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne for P9 and Paul DiResta edged the Frenchman out by 0.1 of a second for the final point as the cars crossed the line in a blanket finish.
The frantic midfield drama slightly deflected the attention from Jenson Button's highly impressive first win of the year and the Red Bull recovery to 2nd and 4th. Lewis Hamilton was a glum addition to the podium in P3 having hoped for so much more. A further seventeen seconds back, Fernando Alonso came home in P5 having saved a lot of the Scuderia's blushes.
It had been an epic first race to start the new season, but as many had predicted, the McLarens and the Red Bulls look to be the teams to beat - even if they don't have a fancy DRS-stalling device.
Frank Hopkinson
Times |