China: Button leads home McLaren 1-2, as Red Bull falter in rain

A good day to be British after McLaren 1-2 in Shanghai

After securing their fourth pole position in the fourth race of the season and locking out the front row, it would not have been wrong to think that Red Bull could repeat their 1-2 result of 2009 in China. However when the lights went out signalling the start of the race it was Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari, which had started in third, who came out of the first corner leading. However, it transpired that he had jumped the start and was soon under the investigation of the stewards. The race was started by all (apart from Glock, who was on the grid with intermediates bizarrely) on slick tyres, however, rain soon started to fall. There was an incident in the first lap when Liuzzi spun out, taking Kobayashi and Buemi with him. Nico Hulkenberg was lucky to avoid the carnage, when he took evasive action and managed to steer around the debris. A safety car was deployed.

The two Red Bull drivers and the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton fell foul to the rain, jumping straight into the pits for inters, while Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg continued on at the front with their slicks. Hamilton’s pit-stop was particularly last minute as he pulled into the pits despite being half way around the final corner. Alonso also pitted for new tyres but this proved to be the wrong decision, as those on inters soon wore out their tyres after only a few laps, with the rain not being heavy enough.

Rosberg and Button were able to pull away at the front, while those who had made the wrong tyre-call had to re-enter the pits to get slicks again. Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel were involved in an incident in the pitlane as they were both released from their pit-boxes almost simultaneously and raced wheel to wheel down the pitlane. They were called in front of the stewards after the race and were each given reprimands for ‘dangerous driving’. Alonso was also handed a drive through penalty during the race for jumping the start.

Up at the front Rosberg and Button were locked in their own battle, and when Rosberg made a slight error, Button was able to take up the lead of the race, and stayed there. Further down the field Hamilton was having to fight through and pulled off some more great overtaking moves, including a battle with Michael Schumacher, which F1 fans had been waiting to see since Schumacher announced his return. Another safety car was brought out on lap 23, to clear up debris left when Alguersuari hit something which caused his front wing to become loose. When the safety car eventually came in again, Button backed the pack up so much that his team-mate ended up banging wheels with Mark Webber and punting him off the track.

Hamilton once more had to fight through the field, and overtake Schumacher again to catch up with the leaders. But once again his tyres became worn and he had to pit for a new set, but this didn’t turn out so bad for him as Rosberg also had to pit, leaving Button and Hamilton leading the race and fighting each other. Alonso had a great drive, to fight back from four pit stops plus his drive through penalty to be involved in a battle with Rosberg for third. Felipe Massa on the other hand, was stuck in the lower end of the points but did manage to overtake his old team-mate, Schumacher, who seemed to struggle with the handling of his Mercedes throughout the whole race.

There were seven retirements from the race including Liuzzi, Kobayashi, Glock, Buemi, di Grassi, and Trulli. Pedro de la Rosa was the seventh who, worryingly for Ferrari, suffered an engine failure, their third in two races. Button led home Hamilton to secure a 1-2 finish for McLaren, with Rosberg holding off Alonso for third. Rosberg’s consistency sees him sitting 2^nd in the Drivers’ Championship. Kubica, Vettel, Petrov, Webber, Massa and Schumacher rounded off the point finishers, with Sutil just failing to score a point despite a good race. Lotus again came out on top of the ‘new boys’ with Heikki Kovalainen finishing the race in 14^th place. However, HRT were the only new team to get both of their cars safely across the line at the end of the race.

The action picks up again in three weeks time in Spain, considering the volcano in Iceland doesn’t continue to cause more problems, as many teams now face the unknown prospect of how or when they’ll get back to Europe, after flights were cancelled and continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

Posted by Hannah Hough - Follow her on twitter @hannahhou.

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