Grand Prix of China 2013
Winner : Fernando Alonso
Second : Kimi Raikkonen
Third : Lewis Hamilton
After the drama of Malaysia how will the teams keep on track for the championships....
The piece on pit stops with the Williams team was brilliant, they do these quite a lot though so it isn't that interesting anymore but it was nice to actually have all the members of the pit crew explaining their job including the drivers.
The only person who seemed to have said Alonso was a threat was Paul Hemberly (Sp?) the Pirelli guy. As you can see from above ^^^^^^ Alonso won.
Had to giggle at Martin Brundle shoving his mic in front of Ricciardo when DC was interviewing him on the grid.
So the Ferrari's are actually getting really good starts this series, they seem to shoot off the start line which is brilliant news for us Ferrari fans. Lewis got away cleanly and kept his lead and there were no accidents. The Force India's kind of shoved each other off the track though it was only really di Resta who suffered from it (go Sutil!) but it wasn't anything major really.
Have to say I'm totally disappointed with McLaren, they are a good team yet they just seem so stagnant at the moment. Perez is a great driver (I'm not even going to bore you with how much I love Jenson) so it is just a little upsetting that the drivers can't seem to get much working for them.
Massa is the total opposite, so proud of how good he has been this season, keeping up with Alonso and showing flashes of the old Massa.
Alonso kept up with Hamilton and started to worry him early on, I'm impressed with Mercedes though to be fair I thought they have been a good strong team all along they just tried their hardest all the time to get Schumacher winning races and it was the wrong way to go about it, but Hamilton and Nico are just pushing those cars so well.
Both Alonso and Massa got past Hamilton in lap 5 and Kimi was right up the back of Hamilton. Happy to see Grosjean stayed up with Kimi as well.
The Ferrari's seem to have brilliant race pace. They could be really dangerous if the pace stays like this, even if they can't get qualifying times in if they can keep the pace in the race then they will be fighting every race and that was what was lacking sometimes last year.
Sutil's back wing was taken off by Guiterrez the back of the car was actually quite depressing to look at.
Lap 15 Jean-Eric Vergne smacked into the side of Webber who had a terrible weekend. To be honest I feel more bad for Jean-Eric who to be fair had the line and Mark hadn't really gone for the overtake until he got to the corner. And not long after that it looks like Kimi hit the back of Perez who seemed to be weaving in front of Kimi.
Oh and Webber then retired. His wheel fell off. It couldn't get worse for Webber really could it?
By lap 30 Alonso was showing his brilliance just driving past people but driving past them just after the DRS trigger points so that he still had DRS when he got past and his opponents don't. One thing that annoys me is things like that are expected of Alonso, when Alonso makes a great pass or Alonso does something really smart and cunning people kind of go "yeah Alonso did that meh" whereas when its Hamilton or Vettel its screaming into the microphone and telling us "THIS IS WHY THEY ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!" Perfectly shown on lap 32 were Vettel made an unspectacular overtake on Massa with new tyres apposed to Massa's old tyres and Ben Edwards was wetting himself about it. To be honest if Massa wasn't such a "safe" driver in a way or was less atuned to F1 Vettel would have caused an accident like Webber did.
Jules is carrying on being very consistent being the first of the back marker teams in front of his team mate and the two Caterhams. He is was only 20 seconds behind Bottas on lap 40.
Now I have to stop talking about the race to mention who beautiful the Ferrari looks in action, I just think it looks wonderful out on track and some of the slow-mo close ups we got were perfect. It really is a lovely looking car especially when the debris and dirt gets on the car and it looks a bit more dull. There was a time when the Ferrari's were way too scarlet-ish the duller color suits it better. But saying this I also think the Mercedes look lovely. I am watching it in HD kind of... And they just look wonderful. Might not be what people want to read about but I had to say it! If that Ferrari wins the championship this year (yes, yes it will!) it'll be bloody handsome!
The race felt too long, I think F1 needs to probably cut the laps down 56 laps dragged with a lot of stale moments especially come the end. 40 laps would probably be the best distance to be honest, having such a long race doesn't do much for the entertainment.
And you know what? This is why I kind of like the BBC highlight races, they leave out the laps that drag and you get a much more interesting view of the race. The laps which have nothing happening are chopped away and out of 56 you might only see 40 laps fully but they are the 40 laps you NEED to see not the 16 that sends you to sleep!
But Alonso won YAY! And Raikkonen was second WOOHOO! Hamilton was third... And this is a WOOYAY because he kept Vettel off the podium. And it says something about how little I think of Vettel now if I'm happy Hamilton is on a podium instead of him.
31 career wins 10th Ferrari win. Fernando is super!
I do love the pre-podium talks they all have, Kimi just leaning on a table talking to Lewis like it was nothing. But it was just lovely to see Fernando on the top step again.
So yes not long to wait till the next race in Bahrain! The championship is staying close but then again it usually does in these races it is only really in Europe when one team or the other starts getting dominant. Lets hope that doesn't happen though!
And it is looking fantastic for Ferrari! Now lets just get Massa on the podium and the top step and whether or not we get a driver championship lets get the team up there boys!
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