8/14/2019 Shanghai Race Report

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In what turned out to be a very wet

Shanghai GP, Sebastian Vettel led Red

bull from pole position to a commanding1-2 with team mate Mark Webber. An

achievement for Webber in itself especially

after badly breaking his leg over the winter.

Championship leader Jenson Button was

a distant 3rd with no real answer to the

Red bull pace.

The Race was started behind the safety

car because of the rain. A shame because

the start is always one of the most tense

exciting and nervous part of the race. The

safety car came in on lap 8 .This was bad

news for second place on the grid Alonso as

he pitted on lap 7 under the safety car for fuel

and tires, if the safety car had stayed out this

could have been a master stroke. But as it

was he was stuck at the back of the train of 

cars with his chance of a good result gone.

Once the safety car was in Vettel and

Weber pulled away from the Brawn GP cars.

The safety car came out for a 2nd time when

Robert Kubica went into the back of Jarno

Trulli in spectacular way. This just proves howhard it is for these guys to see in the wet.

Trulli’s race was ended but Kubica carried on

all but way off the pace.

Vettel survived a scare when Sebastien

Buemi went into the back of him, somehow

not damaging Vettel’s car (It really was

his day). Once the safety car was in Vettel

managed to pull out a nice gap over Button

and Webber who were having a great ght

for 2nd (who ever said there was no over 

taking in F1). In the end, Webber’s attempts

at passing Button paid off, pulling away from

the winner of the rst 2 GPs. By this time

Vettel was a long way ahead so all he had

to do was keep his head together in the rain

and take the win. Webber’s 2nd place made

it a 1-2 for Red bulls rst win with Button 3rd.

Rubans Barrichello came in 4th but was way

off the pace of his team mate Button with

no chance of getting close to the top three,

somehow he ended up with the Fastest Lap

(why could he have not shown that pace allof the race)?

Heikki Kovalainen had an incident free

race at last for Mclaren. Coming 5th (it is

good to see my old driver have a good race).

The opposite can be said of his team mate

Hamilton who showed real pace at times but

made way too many mistakes…… (I think 6)

for a world Champion on his way to 6th.

Poor Adrain sutil was looking good for 

Force India’s rst ever points, when he

aquaplaned into the barriers with 5 laps to go.

Timo Glock came 7th even after tangling

together with Nick Heided damaging

his front wing.

Seabastan Buemi got the last point in 8th

with an excellent drive in only his 3rd GP.

Alonso ended up 9th and out of the points

again, after ghting his way up the eld.

Kimi Raikonen Finished 10th, what is

GP REPORT

S h an g h ai Red Bull’s Maiden F1 Win

Grand PrixBy . Dav i d  H y at t 

 Read the full article in Arabia Motors- May 2009 issue.