A frenetic Chinese Grand Prix saw tyres take centre stage as Lewis Hamilton won the race for McLaren Mercedes. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel finished a dejected second after running out of grip too, while his team-mate Mark Webber was an outstanding third after starting 18th.
Drama before the first lap saw Lewis Hamilton suffer a leaking fuel line into his airbox. McLaren worked quickly to get Hamilton onto the grid, and he left the garage to get onto the starting grid with just thirty seconds to spare.
Despite the nerve-wracking start, Hamilton kept his cool and drove a strong race with a number of important overtakes executed cleanly.
Hamilton was delighted, exclaiming over his radio: “Thank you for the great pit stop! I love you guys!”.
The race start saw Sebastian Vettel struggle with a slow start, letting McLaren’s Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton get past him into the inside, as the German slipped to third.
Mark Webber started in 18th position and could only make up one place as he tip-toed his way behind the field. Webber’s distaste for the harder Pirelli tyre was obvious as he failed to make any real impression on his set of option tyres. Webber made up a few places briefly, before surrendering positions as his tyres went off.
His pit stop to put on on a set of soft Pirelli’s immediately lit up his car, Webber on his way to setting a series of fastest laps for the race.
At the front of the pack, Button, Hamilton and Vettel were within a second of each other with the McLaren’s looking slow ahead of the pit-stops.
Both Button and Vettel pitted at the same time, but Button unfortunately mistook the Red Bull mechanics for his, briefly stopping in Vettel’s pitbox before realising.
The mistake cost Button crucial seconds and allowed Sebastian Vettel to get the jump on him in the stops.
However, both were jumped in the pit stops by Nico Rosberg, as the Mercedes driver pitted ahead of the pack on a three stop strategy. Rosberg had a smooth stop and was able to set fast enough laps to get ahead.
Mark Webber’s fresh set of soft tyres allowed him to cut his way to 11th, before being stuck behind Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi with his faulty KERS unit unable to give him a boost. He stopped for another set of soft tyres and was able to continue to climb.
Button pitted early along with Hamilton to move to a three-stop strategy in response to Rosberg’s three stop strategy. Vettel stayed on his two stop strategy to set up an intriguing (and often difficult to follow) strategic battle.
Battles emerged all over the track, with Webber fighting with Michael Schumacher and Vitaly Petrov. Webber made a hash of a move past Petrov but survived to move past him.
Next, the two McLaren’s diced for second position as Hamilton closed on Button down the pit-straight and overtook him into turn one to grab second.
Webber then took Schumacher down the long back straight in a clean move, dummying left before taking him on the right in a move akin to Webber’s days at the Canberra Raiders as a junior.
Further pit stops saw Nico Rosberg drop to third, as his Mercedes team radioed the German to let him know his predicted fuel levels were critical.
Webber hit the pits for the final time, strapping on a set of fresh rubber, and continued to set fastest laps, taking Fernando Alonso for sixth, and catching the leaders at two seconds per lap.
Meanwhile, on lap 44, Hamilton passed Massa for second, chasing down Vettel for first place with newer tyres.
During the final laps, Hamilton and Vettel scrapped for two laps before Hamilton made a clean move on the defenceless Vettel.
The world championship leader was clearly struggling on his tyres and also appeared to have problems with his KERS boost system.
Webber continued to chase down the leaders, passing Massa, and tackling Rosberg for fourth place with three laps to go, passing his former Williams team-mate for fourth.
Webber charged on to chase Jenson Button for an unlikely and sensational podium position on the second last lap of the race.
Ironically, Webber’s three stop strategy from eighteenth from the grid saw him finish just 2.3 seconds behind his team-mate who two stopped from pole.
An incredible race that saw the Pirelli tyres throw a joker into the pack.
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