2011 CHINESE GP: HAMILTON REPLACE VETTEL ON HIGHEST PODIUM PLACE

Today, in Shanghai, we saw a very interesting race. Lewis Hamilton brake dominance of Vettel who failed to preserve the tires in the last stint for him. McLaren with a good strategy with three stops in pits beat the great German. But the key was the start of the race for this development of events, when Vetel Sebastian (who despite two pit-stops would have won) was passed by both McLaren cars. Then was lost few laps he lacked in closing stages of the race. Today Mark Webber had the power of Red Bull and reached third place, starting from 18th position. Jenson Button finished fourth, but who knows what would have happened if not visited the mechanics of Red Bull, they certainly did not want to change his tires :). Jenson was lucky that McLaren garage is next.

Nico Rosberg 5th, statistically this circuit fits him and confirmed that in race, again with a strategy with three pit-stops. Ferrari as lost, never to choose a winning strategy, sixth and seventh place for the Ferrari drivers. Felipe Massa overtook Fernando Alonso at the start and managed to keep the pace of the leaders, but lacked a good strategy from the team. Michael Schumacher to eighth place with start from 14th position. Good performance from Schumi. The last remaining points are going to Vitaly Petrov and Kamui Kobayashi.

The most interesting period of the race was after all the pits ended, and order was as follows: Vettel, Massa, Rosberg, Hamilton and Button all in eight seconds gap. First we heard the warning to Rosberg by his engineer that the level of fuel in his car is critical, after which Hamilton managed to pass him  in turn sixth. Hamilton quickly cought and passed Massa, another easy prey for him and went in pursuit of Vetel, who struggled with worn tyres on his Red Bull, also he could not to comunicate with his race engineer due to problems with radio link. The difference in times was overwhelming in favor of Britain, and the final epilog couldn`t be different. Hamilton in a direct duel pass slow Vettel car and took the first victory this season. Just to be a more interesting championship.

Button failed to repeat the pace of Hamilton, and was soon under pressure from Webber who was two seconds faster than any other on the track. With fresh soft tyres easily passed Button on the last turn, and eventually finished just 7.5 seconds behind the race winner. Super race for Mark Weber. Jamie Alguersuari was the only driver not to finish the race, but not his fault, his right rear wheel came off after his pit stop, in all that speed mechanic forgot to tighten his wheel. Good day for Lotus, Heikki Kovalainen beat Pastor Maldonado with Williams for 16th place. HRT recorded the first double finish of the race this season.

The Chinese Grand Prix
Shanghai International Circuit, China;
56 laps; 305.066km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:
Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           1h36:58.226
 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +     5.198
 3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +     7.555
 4.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    10.000
 5.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    13.448
 6.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    15.840
 7.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +    30.622
 8.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    31.206
 9.  Petrov        Renault                    +    57.404
10.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:03.273
11.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +  1:08.757
12.  Heidfeld      Renault                    +  1:12.739
13.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +  1:30.189
14.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:30.671
15.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
16.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault              +     1 lap
17.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
18.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
19.  Trulli        Lotus-Renault              +     1 lap
20.  D'Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps
21.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps
22.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps
23.  Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps

FASTEST LAP: Mark Webber, 1:38.993

Not classified/retirements:
Driver        Team                       On lap
Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari           12

AFTER 3 RACES:                
Drivers:                   Constructors:             
 1. Vettel        68       1. Red Bull-Renault          105
 2. Hamilton      47       2. McLaren-Mercedes           85
 3. Button        38       3. Ferrari                    50
 4. Webber        37       4. Renault                    32
 5. Alonso        26       5. Mercedes                   16
 6. Massa         24       6. Sauber-Ferrari              7
 7. Petrov        17       7. Toro Rosso-Ferrari          4
 8. Heidfeld      15       8. Force India-Mercedes        4
 9. Rosberg       10       
10. Kobayashi      7       
11. Schumacher     6       
12. Buemi          4       
13. Di Resta       2       
14. Sutil          2