F1-Blog

Chinese GP goes Michael’s way

Michael Schumacher has leveled the points between himself and Fernando Alonso, causing the title fight to go to the wire.

The weekend started badly for the Scuddera Ferrari team, with Filipe Massa having to take a 10 place drop due to an engine change on Friday. Then during the Saturday sessions the rain came, and the Bridgestone tyres seemed to not work at all.

It all looked bad for Michael. He pulled out an amazing lap during Quali 3 to get the 5th place on the grid. He was however behind both the Renaults and Honda cars.

Sunday morning brought more hardship for the team, as it rained again. Would the Bridgestone tyres work in race conditions? everyone though no.

The Ferrari's seemed to struggle off the grid, with Michael going back a place after lap 1. The pace man looked to be Kimi Raikkonen, who nearly took second position from the start, but had to yield in corner 2 to Jenson Button, who had got ahead of his team mate.

The first corner melee ended with Alonso showing a massive pace advantage over Fisichella then Jenson, followed by Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen.

Raikkonen looked to be on a mission, and overtook Button before the end of the first lap, and made ground on the Renault cars.

By lap 5 Alonso had showed that his pace over the weekend was real, and had put nearly 7 seconds on his team mate, who was closely followed by Kimi.

In the background however Michael was making up for his bad start, and on lap 8 he passed his old team mate Rubens Barrichello for 5th place, and started to make inroads into the Jenson Buttons lead over him.

Lap 13 saw Kimi make a pass on Fisichella to take second place, also Michael had made up the gap to Button and overtook what seemed to be a struggling Honda. It was later heard on the radio that Button's rear tyres had gone off, and he was struggling. He pitted shortly after on lap 15, the first of the front runners to get a new set of boots.

Lap 16 saw Kimi stop for fuel, he however did not take on new tyres. Instead he was doing what most of the drivers did, wear the tread on these tyres down, so they became practically slicks.

Lap 19 and Raikkonen's car stops. It sounds like the car is stuck in the pit lane limiter mode.

Lap 21 brings Schumacher, Webber and a lap later Alonso in for a pit stop. Schumacher just takes on fuel. However the Renault team decide to change the front tyres on Alonso's car to new intermediates.

Kubbica in the BMW tries his luck on lap 24. During his pit stop the team switch him over to slick tyres. The gamble however does not pay off. Kubbica cannot seem to get enough heat into the slicks, and slithers back round to the pits to switch back to used intermediate tyres.

The gap up to Alonso has been coming down, lap on lap Fisichella and Schumacher have been eating into the world champions lead, and it's now down to 6 seconds (from 20). It looks like Alonso in the Renault is struggling with those new front's that he put on at his pit stop. The car will not turn in cleanly to any of the corners, and once in looks very unsettled. However the cars that are now practically running slicks are working a lot better. The track has dried out enough to use slicks, the trouble with switching to slicks is that they are difficult to get up to temperature. This is why the intermediates are working so well, they have worn down to slicks, and are already at temperature.

Alonso get's caught up by the two chasing drivers, and on lap 29 has to allow his team mate to pass him as he just does not have the pace to keep the other Renault behind him. The Renault team decide it would be better for Fisichella to finish first, than it would be for Michael. Coulthard and Massa also stop for there one and only fuel stop. Massa obviously deciding to go heavy after starting from the back, and DC seeming to think with the wet weather that the one stop strategy would not be as big a penalty as it would be in the dry.

Laps 32 through 40 see the whole field stop to switch over from wet to dry tyres, the track is now in the 1:41 times, and that is judges the switchover point. Rosberg is the first to switch in the Williams on lap 32, and after a couple of slithery corners get's up to pace and set's his fastest lap of the race. The other teams obviously seeing this bring their drivers in for the change. 

Alonso's pit change did not however go well. The rear right wheel bolt got cross threaded on the change. The total pit time took around 19 seconds, loosing him 12 seconds in the mistake.

Schumacher is on of the last to pit for dry tyres on lap 40, and although did have a good lead over the Renault's is now being caught by Alonso. This fact brings the German into the pits to switch over to the Bridgestone dry weather tyres. Lap 41 sees Kubbica come in for the change to dry tyres, he was unfortunate that his experiment earlier did not work.

Alonso came out 22 seconds behind Michael after the stop's. His team mate Fisichela was 7 seconds behind the Ferrari. Alonso however after the tyre change has been flying, setting fastest lap and sectors every time he passed the line.

This allows him to catch and pass his team mate on lap 48, and start to take time from the Ferrari ahead of him.

Lap 49 sees Jenson have an off track excursion, loosing the sixth place position he held to McLaren driver Pedro de la Rossa. However it seemed the reason for his off is that the rain has started to fall again at the back of the track.

Button is now the fastest man on the track, other drivers are sliding all over the race track (including Alonso). Button manages to catch and overtake Pedro de la Rossa to regain his sixth place. Button also manages to catch and overtake both team mate Barrichello and also Heidfeld after he spun. Elevating himself to fourth. De la Rossa manages to tail Button passed the other two drivers who get tied up with the tail ender Tacuma Sato, who is later disqualified for the problems he caused.

 All in all it ended up being a good day for the Ferrari team. Even though it was certainly a good drive by Michael, the race was not won by him. Instead it would be fair to say the race was lost by the Renault team, with two pit mistakes by the team. They should have left Alonso on the worn tyres, like everyone else, and then under pressure to make up time in the change to dry tyres, they made a mistake witch made the race win impossible. The points are now even at the top of the drivers standings.

We move onto Japan next, home track of Honda. With the final race in Brazil. The title fight for both Drivers and Constructors championship will go to the wire, and may end up being the closest title fight in F1 for years.

Chinese GP Results

1 M Schumacher Ferrari 1h 37:32.747
2 Alonso Renault + 0:03.121
3 Fisichella Renault + 0:44.197
4 Button Honda + 1:12.056
5 de la Rosa McLaren + 1:17.137
6 Barrichello Honda + 1:19.131
7 Heidfeld BMW + 1:31.979
8 Webber WilliamsF1 + 1:43.588
9 Coulthard Red Bull + 1:43.796
10 Liuzzi Toro Rosso + 1 Lap
11 Rosberg WilliamsF1 + 1 Lap
12 Doornbos Red Bull + 1 Lap
13 Kubica BMW + 1 Lap
14 Speed Toro Rosso + 1 Lap
15 Albers Midland + 3 Laps
16 Yamamoto Super Aguri + 4 Laps

Sato Super Aguri Disqualified
R Schumacher Toyota B 49 Oil Pressure
Massa Ferrari B 44 Accident
Trulli Toyota B 38 Hydraulics
Monteiro Midland B 37 Spun Off
Raikkonen McLaren M 18 Engine

Drivers Championship standings after China

1. M SCHUMACHER 116
2. ALONSO 116
3. FISICHELLA 63
4. MASSA 62
5. RAIKKONEN 57
6. BUTTON 45
7. BARRICHELLO 28
8. MONTOYA 26
9. HEIDFELD 22
10. DE LA ROSA 18
11. R SCHUMACHER 18
12. COULTHARD 14
13. TRULLI 12
14. WEBBER 7
15. VILLENEUVE 7
16. KUBICA 6
17. ROSBERG 4
18. KLIEN 2
19. LIUZZI 1

Constructors Championship Standings after China

1. RENAULT 179
2. FERRARI 178
3. MCLAREN 101
4. HONDA 73
5. BMW SAUBER 35
6. TOYOTA 30
7. RED BULL 16
8. WILLIAMS 11
9. TORO ROSSO 1