Tyre supplier Pirelli made the racing all the more exciting for the fans and teams alike with their specially manufactured F1 rubber, making team strategy a massive player into how many stops are needed to get the maximum effect from tyre changes.

McLaren driver Jenson Button was first into the corner from the start with Sebastian Vettel getting bogged down at the start and going into the corner side by side with Lewis Hamilton. It was Hamilton who got the better of the scrap leaving Vettel to have to fight off the advances of Nico Rosberg in lap one.

Button was first to pit on lap 14 followed down the pit lane by Vettel and much to the embarrassment of the McLaren driver he turned into the Red Bull box, before continuing into his own.

The mistake allowed Vettel to jump Button and as the pit stops unfolded so did the race leaders, making it difficult to keep tabs on who was on what strategy. As time ticked away it was clear that Vettel was on a two stop race and Hamilton on three stops suddenly became the man to watch as he scythed his way through the field after putting a brilliant overtake on his team mate that forced Button to yield.

Button, Nico Rosberg and Fillipe Massa were sucked in and blown out by Hamilton as he clearly sensed his chance of victory with a handful of laps remaining, only Vettel remained in his way and the defending World Champion was defending for his life.

Having been blocked following a move at the hairpin, Hamilton soon caught the German off guard at turn seven with four laps to go and left Vettel in his wake as he scampered off towards his first win of the season.

A spectacular effort from Mark Webber who started the race in 18th position on the grid saw the Australian come into his own in the final part of the race, showing more pace than any of the other drivers as he worked his way through the field overtaking the likes of Alonso, Rosberg and Button with apparent ease.

From eighteenth to third is no mean feat in a race devoid of safety cars and Webber’s heroics at the wheel of the Red Bull were enormous, but on the day it was Lewis Hamilton who stole the show with an electrifying performance of controlled aggressive driving and sublime clinical overtaking throughout the afternoon.

2011 F1 World Championship – China Grand Prix Results

1.     Lewis Hamilton     Britain     McLaren-Mercedes     56     1h36m58.226
2.     Sebastian Vettel     Germany     Red Bull-Renault     56     5.198
3.     Mark Webber     Australia     Red Bull-Renault     56     7.555
4.     Jenson Button     Britain     McLaren-Mercedes     56     10.000
5.     Nico Rosberg     Germany     Mercedes GP     56     13.448
6.     Felipe Massa     Brazil     Ferrari     56     15.840
7.     Fernando Alonso     Spain     Ferrari     56     30.622
8.     Michael Schumacher     Germany     Mercedes GP     56     31.026
9.     Vitaly Petrov     Russia     Renault     56     57.404
10.     Kamui Kobayashi     Japan     Sauber-Ferrari     56     63.273
11.     Paul di Resta     Britain     Force India-Mercedes     56     68.757
12.     Nick Heidfeld     Germany     Renault     56     72.739
13.     Rubens Barrichello     Brazil     Williams-Cosworth     56     90.189
14.     Sebastien Buemi     Switzerland     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     56     90.671
15.     Adrian Sutil     Germany     Force India-Mercedes     55     1 Lap
16.     Heikki Kovalainen     Finland     Lotus-Renault     55     1 Lap
17.     Sergio Perez     Mexico     Sauber-Ferrari     55     1 Lap
18.     Pastor Moldonado     Venezuela     Williams-Cosworth     55     1 Lap
19.     Jarno Trulli     Italy     Lotus-Renault     55     1 Lap
20.     Jerome d’Ambrosio     Belgium     Virgin-Cosworth     54     2 Laps
21.     Timo Glock     Germany     Virgin-Cosworth     54     2 Laps
22.     Vitantonio Liuzzi     Italy     HRT-Cosworth     54     2 Laps
23.     Narain Karthikeyan     India     HRT-Cosworth     54     2 Laps

Former World Champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton will surely be buoyed by the rumours that McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh is keen to keep the pair on board for the next five years with a tempting multi million pound deal, will it reflect in their performances on the track?

In this week’s installment of Inside Track, the British Formula 1 duo describe how the very short break between the Malaysia and Chinese Grands Prix will affect their preparation; as well as the challenges of the Chinese circuit and the perfect place to overtake.

Get behind the wheel with Lewis and Jenson as they give us the inside track ahead of China.

Bernie Ecclestone

Despite the Formula 1 teams still stranded in China following the grounding of airlines amid the threat of volcanic ash after the recent Icelandic volcano eruption, Bernie Ecclestone has said that the Spanish Grand Prix will go ahead.

The Barcelona race due to take place on May 9, was faced with postponement or cancelled due to the disruptions, however, in the worse case scenario it could mean that the teams may have to fly directly to the Spanish circuit.

The chief executive of the Formula One Management (FOM), said to the Times newspaper;

“The main concern is getting the engines back because they have to be worked on.  I am sure everything will be alright. There is no question of cancelling the Spanish Grand Prix. Of course it is causing everybody problems, but we will find a way to get everyone home.”

Jenson Button - McLaren 2010

It was Jenson Button in the McLaren that took the victory at this weekends China Grand Prix followed by his team-mate Lewis Hamilton in second and Nico Rosberg in third for Mercedes.

Light rain began to fall just before the start of the race as the Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber took their first and second place slots on the grid.

It was Fernando Alonso that slotted into third place for the Ferrari team as the lights changed but was later given a drive-through penalty for what was considered a jump start.

A three-car tangle in the opening stages of the race brought out the safety car after Vitantonio Liuzzi made a mistake at turn 6, spinning across the track and collecting Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi on the way for the first three retirements of the day.

With the safety car on track many of the drivers took the opportunity of entering the pits to fit intermediate tyres although it wasn’t long before those drivers realised there mistake.   While Button, Rosberg, Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov decided not to pit, Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso’s tyres were destroyed after just a handful of laps.

As the drivers returned to their pit garage, Hamilton and Vettel were seen coming down the pit entry side-by-side, they were both released and again ran side-by-side towards the pit exit.  After being investigated it was decided that it was deemed ‘a racing incident’ with both drivers being reprimanded for what was considered driving in ‘a dangerous manner’.

As the cars rejoined the track after the second rain shower had sent them back to the pits, Button was still leading the race, building up a gap at the front until the safety car was once again deployed after a coming together between the Force India of Adrian Sutil and the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari, resulting in a broken nose cone for the Spanish driver.

As the safety car went off track on lap 25, Button backed-up the pack seeing Webber forced off track by Hamilton as they battled to get away at the front. Hamilton carved his way through the field to be back in third position by lap 29 passing Michael Schumacher, Petrov and then Kubica.

The drivers were forced to return to their garages again for fresh intermediate tyres, with Hamilton managing to make a jump on Rosberg as they exited the pits.

Towards the end of the race, the tyres were practically bald, causing Button to run off track although he had built-up enough of a gap to hold his position at the front and take the chequered flag for his second win of the season followed by the second McLaren of Hamilton in second.

Rosberg took the final step of the podium ahead of the Ferrari of Alonso in fourth, Kubica in fifth and Vettel in sixth.  Webber looked set to take seventh position until he was pipped at the post by Petrov on the penultimate lap, putting him back in eighth but still ahead of the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa and Schumacher in tenth.

There were the inevitable retirements during the course of the race with Jarno Trulli going out on lap 26 after his Lotus developed hydraulic problems.  Timo Glock failed to start the race after his Virgin Racing car wouldn’t start as he lined-up on the grid, and then again as he waited to leave the pit lane as the race got underway. Lucas di Grassi and Pedro de la Rosa also both failed to finish the race, the Virgin racing car having problem with it’s hydraulic system and the BMW Sauber car developing engine problems.

Here’s the results;

1. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes 56 laps 1hr 46m 42.163s
2. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes +00m 01.5s
3. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes +00m 09.4s
4. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari-Ferrari +00m 11.8s
5. Robert Kubica Poland Renault-Renault +00m 22.2s
6. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault +00m 33.3s
7. Vitaly Petrov Russia Renault-Renault +00m 47.6s
8. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault +00m 52.1s
9. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari +00m 57.7s
10. Michael Schumacher Germany Mercedes-Mercedes +01m 01.7s

Rtd Jarno Trulli Italy Lotus-Cosworth 26 laps completed
Rtd Lucas di Grassi Brazil Virgin-Cosworth 18 laps completed
Rtd Pedro de la Rosa Spain BMW Sauber-Ferrari 17 laps completed
Rtd Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari 0 laps completed
Rtd Kamui Kobayashi Japan BMW Sauber-Ferrari 0 laps completed
Rtd Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy Force India-Mercedes 0 laps completed
Rtd Timo Glock Germany Virgin-Cosworth 0 laps completed

Button reflects on his performance in the previous round in Malaysia and the general performance of the McLaren team in that race and how they have fared so far this season.

He also gives his thoughts on how he hopes to improve even further on his podium finish at last year’s Grand Prix at the Shanghai track in China.

Get behind the wheel with Jenson as he gives the ‘Inside Track’ ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix.

Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso 2009

It has now been confirmed by the Toro Rosso team, that Sebastien Buemi will be given a second season with them after signing his contract for 2010.

Buemi out-qualified his team-mate Sebastien Bourdais in his first race in Formula One at the Australian Grand Prix of 2009, finishing the race in eighth place, which later became seventh after Lewis Hamilton was disqualified.

In the third race of the season at the Chinese Grand Prix, he again finished in eighth position despite starting the race from tenth on the grid.  Things were relatively quite for a period as the rookie driver struggled to handle the pace but all that changed again at the Brazilian Grand Prix where he achieved seventh.

At the final round of the 2009 season in Abu Dhabi, he again scored eighth position and was awarded a drive for the team in the 2010 season.

It is expected that the Swiss driver will be joined by Jaime Alguersuari, who joined the team midway through the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where after qualifying in last place due to a mechanical problem he ended the race one place ahead of Buemi.

Australia has now been chosen as the second round, allowing the race to begin at 5pm to fit in with the television broadcasters who favour racing in ‘twilight’ rather than the dark.  However, the Singapore round will still be under full floodlights when it takes place in late September.

Although as yet no contract has been signed, the Canadian Grand Prix has been pencilled in for the 13 June, if the contract fails again this year the Turkey Grand Prix will be held later to compensate.

South Korea is a new circuit on the calendar, set to take place in mid-October with the final round being held in Brazil as usual but it will be held in November.

Here is the calendar;

Australia          March 28
Malaysia           April 4
China              April 18
Spain              May 9
Monaco             May 23
Turkey             May 30
Canada*            June 13
Europe (Valencia)  June 27
Great Britain      July 11
Germany            July 25
Hungary            August 1
Belgium            August 29
Italy              September 12
Singapore          September 26
Japan              October 3
Korea              October 17
Abu Dhabi          October 31
Brazil             November 14

*Subject to the completion of contract negotiations with Formula One Management. If these are not completed then the Turkish Grand Prix will be moved to 6 June.

Note: The race in Australia will start at 1700 local time, in Malaysia at 1600 local time, in Singapore at 2000 local time, and in Abu Dhabi at 1700 local time.

Red Bull Racing 2009

It has been confirmed that the Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel, currently running in third in the Championship with 47 points, has signed to race for the team until the end of the 2011 season.

Mark Webber confirmed his drive with the team at the end of July and is currently in second place in the standings with 51.5 points, behind championship leader Brawn GP driver Jenson Button on 70 points.

The 32-year-old Australian, joined the Red Bull Racing team in 2007 alongside David Coulthard after his two-year contract with the Williams team ended.  In 2009, the 22-year-old German driver replaced Coulthard to race alongside Webber after two-years with their sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Vettel has so far won the Chinese and the British Grand Prix while Webber took the victory at the German Grand Prix, both drivers have the option to sign for 2012.

The weather itself has little effect on the support for F1 in China and it is easy to point a finger at the global financial crisis as being the main culprit in keeping fans away from the track. But despite the excellent track and facilities built at a cost of $350million on swampland outside the city specifically to host Formula One, the paying public have avoided the event like the plague.

Stories of shipping busloads of spectators in for free to fill the main stands, have been verified by the embarrassed organisers in the past and you have to suspect that nothing has changed at this years race. Chinese media have estimated that total losses over the seven year contract that expires next year, will amount to around $750million.

But it is not just the spectators that have gone missing, Chinese businesses have been reluctant to commit to Formula One and this years race actually took place without a title sponsor after the state run oil company Sinopec refused to renew it’s deal with the organisers.

Shanghai’s deputy sports minister has said that a decision on whether to take a further five year renewal option on the contract will be made before the end of 2009. In the meantime Bernie Ecclestone is typically bullish over the situation, saying that he was sure that the race will still be on the calendar for 2011, “As long as there is China, we will be here. Asia is growing while lots of parts of the world are dying. That is the difference.”

Sebastian Vettel

As was predicted, the heavens opened ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix resulting in a start behind the safety car for the first 8 laps of the race.

Sebastian Vettel had qualified in pole position and dominated the race to claim the first win for the Red Bull Renault team ahead of team-mate Mark Webber.

Fernando Alonso had qualified for Renault team second on the grid for the start of the race but after an early pit stop, Webber took up the place.

Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber and Timo Glock in the Toyota, both started from the pit lane after penalties but neither were really affected due to the start behind the safety car.

On lap 3, Felipe Massa in the Ferrari was one of the first drivers to slide off the track but rejoined without any damage to his car as the dismal weather continued. On lap 4, Adrian Sutil in the Force India car, also ran off track but only to avoid hitting the back of the Renault driven by Nelson Piquet, and pitted on the next lap.

While the safety car remained on the track and the drivers were eager to get the race underway, many of the teams decided to change their strategy, seeing cars coming into the pits to take on fuel and change tyres before the restart.

Finally on lap 9, the race started and although many of the drivers were cautious, Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren was on a mission and passed the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, moving him up to sixth place.

On lap 10, Vettel was leading the race followed by Webber, Rubens Barrichello in the Brawn GP car, Jenson Button, Jarno Trulli in the Toyota, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Sebastien Buemi in the Toro Rosso, Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber and Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren.

On lap 11, Hamilton made an impressive pass on Trulli before running off track on both of the next two laps putting him back down into fifth place while Buemi passed Raikkonen and then Trulli in an impressive drive.

Massa passed his team-mate Raikkonen before lining up Trulli and eventually passing him two-laps later, while Timo Glock ran into the back of Heidfeld on lap 14 as he tried to pass him.

Race leader Vettel, pitted on lap 15 after building-up an 11 second lead, followed by Webber, letting Button take the lead. Vettel rejoined in 3rd place behind the Brawn GP pair.   Raikkonen and Hamilton had passed Trulli with Hamilton then making the move on Raikkonen until the Finn took the place back from the British driver as he made yet another mistake.

Button was now leading the race followed by Barrichello and Vettel as Kubica flew over the back end of the Toyata driven by Trulli going into the final turn and ending the race for the Italian.

Once again, the safety car was deployed due to the debris from the rear of the Toyota across the circuit causing Button to go from a 14 second lead to nil as he entered the pits,  leaving Vettel and Webber back at the front of the pack.

On lap 21, Felipe Massa went from third place to a complete standstill on the back straight after an electrical  failure on the Ferrari, putting him out of the race and another the third without scoring  points.

The safety car came in once again on lap 23 with Vettel leading Button followed by Webber, as Hamilton passed Raikkonen to sit in fourth place.

Webber began to put the pressure on Button before passing him on lap 29.  Raikkonen pitted from fifth place on lap 29 and rejoins back in seventeenth as Nelson Piquet went off track and hit a marker board before going into the wall and damaging his front wing.  His problems didn’t end there as he also suffered a problem in his pit stop fitting the new front wing  and dropped to sixteenth place.

On lap 31, Button re-passed Webber for second place as the Red Bull driver ran wide but only held it until the next lap when Webber forced his way back through.  Fernando Alonso had meanwhile fought his way back to seventh place.

On lap 34, Hamilton pitted from fourth place and rejoined in eighth handing the position to Heikki Kovalainen who pitted on the following lap.

Vettel came in for his final pit stop on lap 38 after building a 17 second lap advantage ahead of his team-mate and rejoins in third place.

Alonso spun the Renault on lap 38 while in fifth place, a costly mistake which saw him drop back down the field to thirteenth place.

On lap 40, Webber took  his final stop while Vettel closed in on the Brawn GP of Button and eventually slips past him with ease on the following lap, Button then takes his stop, opting again for full wet tyres and rejoins in fourth.

A terrible day for the Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima, who appeared to be off the track more than on it before the FW31 developed a gear box problem on lap 45, ending his race.  Team- mate Nico Rosberg, pitted from thirteenth place and opted for intermediate tyres, a bad choice on a still sodden track and returned to the pits on lap 50 for full wets.

Hamilton again ran wide on lap 48, letting Kovalainen through for the fifth place before spinning again on lap 50, letting Sutil through.  Unfortunately, Sutil slid across the track on lap 52, smashing the Force India into the wall.

The Red Bull duo took the chequered flag of the two Brawn GP drivers Button and Barrichello with Heikki Kovalainen in fifth.  Hamilton followed his team-mate with sixth place ahead of Timo Glock and an impressive Sebastien Buemi in eighth.

Spanish driver Fernando Alonso finished in ninth place followed by the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Bourdais in the second Toro Rosso.

Here are the results;

 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1h57:43.485
 2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    10.970
 3.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  +    44.975
 4.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  +  1:03.704
 5.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +  1:05.102
 6.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +  1:11.866
 7.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +  1:14.476
 8.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +  1:16.439
 9.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +  1:24.309
10.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +  1:31.750
11.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +  1:34.156
12.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +  1:35.834
13.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +  1:46.853
14.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +     1 lap
15.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +     1 lap
16.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  +    2 laps

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)    51
Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)    44
Massa         Ferrari               (B)    23
Trulli        Toyota                (B)    19

Fastest lap: Barrichello, 1:52.592