FORMULA ONE
2009 Chinese Grand Prix Race Report
Red bull driver Sebastian Vettel rounded off a fantastic weekend for the Red Bull team with a maiden win. Vettel grabbed pole position in qualifying and then went on to win in atrocious conditions.
There was more good news for Red Bull, as team-mate Mark Webber made it a one-two to ensure it was a dream day for the British-based team in China. Brawn GP driver and world championship leader Jenson Button put in a solid performance and made it on to the final step of the podium.
A delighted Button said, “A very difficult race today and I am so pleased that we got both cars to the end of 56 laps and scored as many points as possible. The conditions were pretty crazy with rivers of water all over the circuit which changed every time you encountered them. The last turn particularly was like a lake and you just couldn’t brake for the corner. I struggled with the car aquaplaning and the tyres shuddering as we couldn’t get the temperatures high enough to make them work properly. Mark Webber and I had a good fight for a few laps but I just couldn’t stay with him. However to finish the race today is an achievement in itself and to be on the podium is fantastic. We couldn’t have beaten the Red Bulls and congratulations to Sebastian and Mark on a great result.”
While his Brazillian team-mate Rubens Barricello made home in fourth to give Brawn a commanding lead in the constructors championship after just three races.
Rubens Barricello said, “It was a tough race in very challenging conditions out there today. I only had three brake discs working on my car for the first 19 laps which made it even more difficult for me to keep the car on the road. Thankfully the problem resolved itself when the brakes heated up during my first pit stop and I had a good pace from then but unfortunately it was a bit too late. However we got the car to the end of the race in difficult circumstances and I scored as many points as I could have done, so we have to be happy with that.”
Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren behind Finnish team-mate Heikki Kovalainen who had fought his way to fifth at the flag. The race began under the safety car and this lasted for the first eight laps.
It was Vettel to prove his worth by winning in challenging conditions, team-mate Webber was second 10.9 seconds adrift It was another race to forget for Ferrari, on lap 21 Felipe Massa was in a strong third place before retiring.
Force India came close to securing their first ever points in F1 but Adrian Sutil, who was in sixth place with five laps to go, but he spun off on worn tyres.
A disappointed Adrian Sutil commented, 'I had prepared myself for a hard race and that's exactly what it was. We took a risk with the strategy with a very early stop and it was a long way to go with one set of tyres. Then it started to rain again and it was very hard to keep the car on the circuit. Sometimes even in a straight line in fourth or fifth gear I was struggling with aquaplaning and I was very lucky to keep the car on the circuit for so long. It's a shame - you focus so much and think you can do it, but the car was just out of control at the end. I had the same feeling as Monaco - it's hard to believe when you are in the car and then suddenly you lose it and it's all over from such a great position. But you have to get over it, we had a great performance today. It's good for the team and I think we deserved the points, I just feel bad for everyone here. It was a very good strategy call, but that's what we had to do: take a risk.”
Williams was another team who found the going tough in Shanghai.
With the race started under the safety car, the Williams team opted to alter Nico Rosberg strategy, bringing him in early from seventh position. Unfortunately, an unexpectedly premature end to the safety car period left Nico Rosberg at the back of the pack and unable to recover position leaving him in P15 at the end of the race. Kazuki Nakajima afternoon was similarly fruitless. After several excursions off the race track, his race ended on lap 43 following the team’s first mechanical failure since the Spanish Grand Prix last year.
Nico Rosberg said, “The main problem I had today was drops sticking to my visor which wouldn’t run off making it virtually impossible to see. It’s a problem related to my visor’s anti-fog system which I’ve had in the past but haven’t been able to resolve. 15 laps before the end of the race we were not in a good position so I asked to be switched onto intermediates as I thought we had to try something. For the first few laps, they were good. It looked like the way to go so I was quite pleased, but then unfortunately more rain came and it was all over again. Bahrain is only a week away and a good result, which everyone in the team deserves, is overdue.”
While Kazuki Nakajima added, “I had a transmission problem today so unfortunately I couldn’t carry on with the race. It was very difficult out there with really poor visibility. There was a lot of standing water and it was hard to keep the car on the track, particularly on the exit of the last corner. I made some mistakes but it was the same for everybody.”
On a separate note, the Williams team was saddened by the unexpected death of Jim Douglas. With Williams since the early days, Jim was a stalwart in its machine shop for 28 years.
The BMW team had a race to foget as well. Both drivers were involved in a couple of the numerous incidents due to aquaplaning and poor visibility. In the end Nick Heidfeld finished 12th just ahead of his team mate, Robert Kubica.
Nick Heidfeld said, “Of course I’m disappointed with the outcome of today’s race, but at the same time I feel I should be grateful I was able to finish it at all. The conditions in terms of visibility and aquaplaning were disastrous. In the beginning, after the safety car pulled off, my tyre pressures were too low so I struggled a lot. On lap 13 Timo Glock hit me, which caused damage to the car and certainly didn’t help. However, close to the end of the race I had the chance to score one or two points, but then there was a lot of debris on the track, including a wheel, from Adrian Sutil’s accident. I tried to find a way around it, but it was unpredictable which way it would go and it hit me. Afterwards the car felt very strange and I lost four places.”
Robert Kubica stated, “Driving was very dangerous today. We had aquaplaning nearly everywhere and the lack of visibility was a disaster. There were quite a lot of situations when I couldn’t see anything. All this also caused my heavy accident with Jarno Trulli. When Jarno braked into the corner I hit some standing water. Although I hit the brakes very hard the car still accelerated. I went quite high into the air after hitting his rear tyre, but fortunately nobody was hurt. After coming to the pits we had to change the front wing a second time as I felt some vibration and massively lost grip. This ruined my race.”
Panasonic Toyota Racing left China with two points after a hard day's work at the second rain-affected race of 2009. Timo Glock started from the pit lane with a heavy fuel load on wet Bridgestone tyres. He initially made up ground with a number of passing moves and he was up to 11th by the second safety car period. Unfortunately he sustained front wing damage and he was forced to come in for an early pit stop to change it on lap 24. The pit stop crew did a quick turnaround and he was fuelled to the end of the race. He dropped to the back again but he battled hard, passing more cars and bringing his TF109 home in 7th for two points. Jarno Trulli started in 6th place but struggled for grip in the wet conditions, losing ground before he was hit from behind by Robert Kubica's BMW on lap 17. He returned to the pits but the damage was too great to continue.
Jarno Trulli said, "That was not a good day for me. The conditions were very difficult, there was a lot of standing water and lots of aquaplaning. When the safety car came in I made a solid start and my pace was okay in the early laps. But then I started struggling for grip, the pace just wasn't there and the longer it went on the more ground I lost. On lap 17 I just felt a big hit from behind and I lost my rear wing. I made it back to the pits but we couldn't continue. Still, my pace yesterday shows we're close the front so now we must hope for better fortunes in Bahrain next weekend."
Timo Glock stated, "In the end we picked up more points from the pit lane so we have to be happy with that. But it was a very hard race, especially at the beginning. I was quite surprised when we started the race. When you're at the back of the field there is no chance to see anything and it's like driving blind. I made up some ground but I damaged my front wing when I touched Nick. It was so difficult to see, I misjudged my braking point and hit him on the back. That meant we had to bring our pit stop forward by a few laps to fix the damage. Later when I had a clear run for five or six laps I was pretty quick and on the pace but as soon as I caught Kimi I was stuck behind him. I couldn't see the standing water so I had to back off, particularly in the areas where you could overtake. In the end I got past and we were able to bring it home 7th."
Tadashi Yamashina - Team Principal said, "Timo didn't quite put together his last qualifying run yesterday but he never gave up. Today he twice found himself at the back of the field but he showed great spirit to overtake so many cars and bring home two points. Jarno struggled to make the most of his strong grid position today so we will have to check the data to find out what went wrong. Still, his qualifying performance was good so I'm sure he will do his best to make the podium again at the next race. We still have our spirit to win and we will fight again.”
Simon McBride
2009 Chinese Grand Prix Results
| 1 Sebastien Vettel | Red Bull | 1h57m43.485s |
| 2 Mark Webber | Red Bull | 1h57m54.455s |
| 3 Jenson Button | Brawn GP | 1h58m28.460s |
| 4 Rubens Barricello | Brawn GP | 1h58m47.189s |
| 5 Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1h58m48.587 |
| 6 Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1h58m55.351s |
| 7 Timo Glock | Toyota | 1h58m57.961s |
| 8 Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1h58m59.924s |
| 9 Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1h59m07.794s |
| 10 Kimi Raikkonnen | Ferrari | 1h59m15.235s |
| 11 Sebastien Bourdais | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1h59m17.641s |
| 12 Nick Heidfeld | BMW-Sauber | 1h59m19.319s |
| 13 Robert Kubica | BMW-Sauber | 1h59m30.338s |
| 14 Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India | Lapped |
| 15 Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | Lapped |
| 16 Nelson Piquet Jr | Renault | Lapped |
| 17 Adrian Suitil | Force India | Lapped |
| DNF Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | Retired lap 43 |
| DNF Felipe Massa | Ferrari | Retired lap 20 |
| DNF Jarno Trulli | Toyota | Retired lap 18 |
2009 FIA Formula One Driver's World Championship
| 1 Jenson Button | 21 |
| 2 Rubens Barricello | 15 |
| 3 Sebastien Vettel | 10 |
| 4 Timo Glock | 10 |
| 5 Mark Webber | 9.5 |
| 6 Jarno Trulli | 8.5 |
| 7 Nick Heidfeld | 4 |
| 8 Fernando Alonso | 4 |
| 9 Heikki Kovalainen | 4 |
| 10 Lewis Hamilton | 4 |
| 11 Nico Rosberg | 3.5 |
| 12 Sebastien Buemi | 3 |
| 13 Sebastien Bourdais | 1 |
| 14 Adrian Sutil | 0 |
| 15 Robert Kubica | 0 |
| 16 Kimi Raikonnen | 0 |
| 17 Felipe Massa | 0 |
| 18 Nelson Piquet Jr | 0 |
| 19 Kazuki Nakajima | 0 |
| 20 Giancarlo Fisichella | 0 |
2009 FIA Formula One Constructor's World Championship
| 1 Brawn-Mercedes | 36 |
| 2 Red Bull Renault | 19.5 |
| 3 Toyota | 18.5 |
| 4 McLaren Mercedes | 8 |
| 5 Torro-Rosso Ferrari | 4 |
| 6 Renault | 4 |
| 7 BMW-Sauber | 4 |
| 8 Williams-Toyota | 3.5 |
| Force India | 0 |
| Ferrari | 0 |
All results subject to FIA confirmation
Simon McBride
Thanks to Brawn GP, Toyota, Force India, Williams, Ferrari and BMW F1 teams for suppling the images.
