Lewis Hamilton stopped Sebastian Vettel's run of victories dead in its tracks as he took the chequered flag in today's race at Shanghai. The decisive factor was tyre strategy – McLaren's decision to run both Hamilton and teammate Jenson Button on three-stop strategies gave Hamilton the edge over Vettel, who made two stops. A three-stop strategy also put Mark Webber on the podium despite a disastrous qualifying session.
Vettel's scorching performance in qualifying saw him take pole position by a substantial margin ahead of the McLarens of Button and Hamilton, the latter of whom had saved a set of soft tyres by making only one run in Q3. Nico Rosberg did a brilliant job to join Hamilton on the second row for Mercedes, ahead of the Ferrari duo of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. Webber's choice to not use soft tyres in Q1 combined with a lack of KERS saw him eliminated and thus languishing in 18th place.
At the beginning of the race, Vettel did not make the start he would've liked as both McLarens swarmed past the Red Bull, with Button taking the lead. Rosberg held on to fourth while Massa jumped Alonso for fifth, and not for the first time this year. The two Force Indias of Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil were next from Michael Schumacher who, from a disappointing 14th on the grid, made another great start to end the first lap up in ninth. Just behind, on lap 3, Kamui Kobayashi made use of the DRS zone, this time located on the longer back straight, to relieve Jaime Alguersauri of the final points-paying position.
This is how the order would remain in the top ten until the first round of pit-stops, with Mark Webber making surprisingly few inroads from his starting position during the initial stint. The first of the leading cars to pit was Schumacher on lap 11, followed two laps later by his Mercedes teammate Rosberg. This seemingly indicated that the German squad were going to attempt a three-stop strategy for both of their men, which turned out to be something of a shrewd move.
Button pitted from the lead on lap 15, closely shadowed by Vettel who peeled in from third place. However, as both the McLaren and Red Bull pit-crews stood outside their respective pit garages with fresh tyres at hand, Button made the appalling error of almost stopping his car at the Red Bull pit-box, before proceeding to his own several metres down the road. This faux pas, of course, cost him time, handing track position to Vettel, but both men found themselves rejoining the action behind Rosberg, who moved into what would become the lead after the first round of stops, thanks to his two extra laps on fresh tyres.
Meanwhile, Massa made good use of the DRS and KERS combination to take the lead on the road away from Hamilton at the hairpin before the pair made their stops on lap 16. For the Brazilian's teammate, however, things were not quite so easy – Schumacher, like Rosberg, had made up considerable ground to move ahead of Alonso to take sixth. The Spaniard would remain close to the seven-time champion's tail though, and after a few attempts, Alonso finally took the position back from his erstwhile rival at turn 14 on lap 25.
At the front, Rosberg continued to head the order relatively comfortably ahead of Vettel, Button, Massa and Hamilton. The leader made his second of three scheduled stops on lap 26, and after resuming fifth, he soon closed up to the back of Alonso and pressed home the advantage of newer tyres to outfox the Ferrari number one and overtake around the final corner of lap 28. Clearly struggling for pace, Button overtook Alonso on the following lap at the hairpin after the Brit made his second stop, a move emulated one lap later by his teammate Hamilton who had also taken the opportunity to change tyres.
Vettel thus retook the lead, and according to his two-stop strategy waited until lap 32 before making his second stop. The clear benefit of having fresher rubber was demonstrated once more however when he resumed not only behind Rosberg, but both McLarens as well. Massa also suffered by waiting until lap 34 to stop again, dropping behind Hamilton who was beginning to hassle his teammate Button in an all-British battle for second.
Hamilton got a good drive out of the final corner of lap 35 which allowed him to make a canny pass up the inside of the first corner, one that caught Button somewhat unawares. His pace fading, Button made his third and final stop of the day on lap 38, and Hamilton followed suit one lap later. Still leading, Rosberg made his third stop on lap 40, but it was becoming apparent that his pace was not as strong as the McLarens. Hamilton proved that point beyond a doubt by slipping up Rosberg's inside in a bold move at turn 6 on lap 42. The German then made an error at the hairpin three laps later to give another place away to Button.
Hamilton's charge continued when on lap 45, he got by Massa, who was running second on a two-stop strategy. This placed the McLaren pilot just five seconds behind Vettel, who like Massa was beginning at this stage to struggle on his wearing hard tyres. Also on something of a roll was Webber, who in the meantime also made use of an unorthodox three-stop strategy (starting the race on hard rather than soft tyres) to move quietly up the order, putting himself in contention for a strong finish. He breezed past Alonso to snatch sixth on lap 45 and set about catching the pack ahead.
Massa would become the Australian's next victim after falling foul of the much faster three-stoppers of Button and Rosberg on consecutive laps at the hairpin, although the latter's task was made somewhat easier when his opponent ran wide. Webber predictably passed the ailing Ferrari on lap 51, and followed that up with straightforward passes on both Rosberg and Button to incredibly find himself in a podium position on the penultimate lap.
The pace of his Red Bull teammate, however, was not quite as formidable – Hamilton continued to close the deficit to the leader at a rate of knots before finally making the inevitable move at turn 7 on lap 52. From there on, there was no stopping Hamilton, who romped to his first race win since last year's Belgian Grand Prix. Vettel did well to hang on to second ahead of his inspired teammate Webber, with Button coming home fourth, Rosberg fifth, Massa sixth and Alonso seventh, only just ahead of Schumacher who was yet another man to profit from three pit-stops. Rounding out the points were Vitaly Petrov after a difficult weekend for Renault, and Kobayashi who continued his solid run of finishes for Sauber.
Di Resta ended up eleventh, despite looking good for points early on, just holding on from Heidfeld who returned to earth with a thump after his podium last time out. Rubens Barrichello posted the first finish of the season for Williams in thirteenth, ahead of Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi who failed to deliver on a strong starting position of ninth. Adrian Sutil wound up fifteenth after being clattered into by an over-exuberant Sergio Perez in the latter stages, the Mexican getting slapped with a drive-through penalty for his misdemeanour.
The Sauber driver would finish in seventeenth, behind the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen but ahead of the second Williams of Pastor Maldonado. Jarno Trulli was next, from the Virgin pair of Jerome D'Ambrosio and Timo Glock, Narain Karthikeyan for Hispania and his teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi who got an early drive-through penalty for jumping the start. The race saw just one retirement in the form of Jaime Alguersauri, whose right-rear wheel departed from the rest of his Toro Rosso just after his first pit-stop.
So, after another thrilling race, the F1 circus can rest assured that Vettel and Red Bull are not completely unstoppable, as Hamilton expertly proved. He now lies second in the championship standings, 21 points behind the reigning champion, with 9 in hand from teammate Button who is just one point ahead of Webber in fourth. Only three men in the history of the sport have gone on to deny the man who won the first two races the title – Jackie Stewart in 1973, Niki Lauda in 1976 and Keke Rosberg in 1982. Hamilton will no doubt be hoping, along with several others, that he can become the fourth man to join that list.
Sadly, we now have to wait three weeks for the next round in Turkey to see whether McLaren can continue the fine form they displayed in China. In the meantime, make sure you check back here on the preceding Sundays for more intriguing articles about the world of Formula One.
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