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CHINA ANOTHER WASHOUT FOR FERRARI
Kimi Raikkonen finished the Chinese Grand Prix in tenth place, while Felipe Massa retired on the twenty first lap, parking his F60 at the side of the track, with an electrical problem, when he looked to be heading for a third place, following a fantastic drive up to that point.
“We are very annoyed about what happened to Felipe,” Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari Team Director. “He was driving an amazing race, when an electrical problem saw the engine die. He was third at the time and even though he had a heavy fuel load, he was lapping in the same time as the fastest and he would have almost certainly finished the race on the podium. Kimi switched his strategy, going from a two to a one stop, but he could not get higher than tenth. On his first set of tyres, his pace was reasonable, but with the second he suffered constantly from a lack of grip which kept him out of the points. The great shame is that at a time when technically we are not at our best, once again we failed to capitalise on circumstances. Now we look towards next weekend’s race in Bahrain in a realistic frame of mind: the car will be the same as here, even though we will look at running the KERS again. In the meantime, we have to work intensively on getting the new aerodynamic components to the race track, when the European part of the season gets underway in Barcelona.”
The race ended in a one-two finish, for the Red Bull Racing team, securing its first ever F1 win, courtesy of Sebastian Vettel, with team-mate Mark Webber second. Joining them on the podium was the championship leader, Brawn GP’s Jenson Button.
Yet another wet Formula 1 afternoon as the cars lined up on the grid, with Kimi Raikkonen in eighth place and his Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team mate, Felipe Massa in thirteenth. Timo Glock and Robert Kubica would start from the pit lane. With minutes to go, there were rumours the race would start behind the Safety Car as drivers were complaining of aquaplaning and rivers of water running across the Shanghai track at several points. The rumour was correct: with very poor visibility the cars trailed behind the Safety Car, both Ferraris and others at some point even going off the track and continuing, until finally the race got underway on lap 9 although Alonso had already pitted one lap earlier as did Rosberg. At this point Kimi was sixth and Felipe thirteenth, but the Finn, telling the pit wall his engine was not running well when in traffic, would soon be passed by Hamilton in the McLaren, with Felipe now eleventh. On lap 12, Buemi passed Kimi and then the Finn lost a further place to his team-mate. In fact, Felipe was making good progress, running a heavy fuel load and passed Trulli to go sixth on lap 14.
Kimi still appeared to be struggling and he lost seventh place to Hamilton on lap 16, although the Finn fought back to retake the place one lap later.
The race was neutralised again on lap 19, after Kubica and Trulli collided at the end of the main straight. Two laps later and Felipe, with a heavy fuel load was now running third, between Vettel and Button and ahead of Webber, Kimi and Hamilton. But it was not to be, as Felipe suddenly found he was getting nothing from his throttle pedal and the car just cut out at the side of the track.
“Obviously, I’m very disappointed and a bit upset but my motivation is still intact,” said Felipe Massa. “All of us must work together to get out of this situation. The team is united and there is a real will to turn things round as soon as possible. We should quickly be getting some significant aerodynamic developments, but it’s true we also have to sort out as soon as possible our reliability problems, because if we want to win, first we have to finish the races. Today, I was in with a good chance of getting on the podium. I was third and lapping in the same times as the leaders, even though I had enough fuel on board to go for a one stop. The car was going well, except when running behind the Safety Car: at those times, there were a few moments when the power seemed to drop. Then, without warning, the accelerator would not work and the car went quiet. I would say to our fans that they should not give up on us, as this is a difficult moment, but the championship is still long.”
Kimi then lost a place to Hamilton to drop to fifth on lap 23, five laps before making his only pit stop, after changing from a two stop strategy, taking on enough fuel to get to the end of the 56 lap race. On lap 29 came a significant moment at the front, when Button slid wide letting Vettel back into the lead. Kimi naturally slid down the order after his stop and found the car lacked grip in this final stint, which meant he was always struggling to make up places and in fact had to defend his position from various attacks on a difficult afternoon. With around four laps to go, the order seemed finally fixed and behind the podium trio came Barrichello, Kovalainen, Hamilton, Glock, Buemi, the last of the points scorers, then Alonso and Raikkonen.
“In the early stages, it wasn’t too bad but then, after my stop, I lost grip from the tyres and I was no longer able to push as hard as I wanted, because it meant the car was sliding a lot,” explained Kimi Raikkonen. “A few times, the engine seemed to lose power, especially when I found myself close behind other cars, but then the problem went away on its own. Clearly the championship situation looks very difficult. We have made mistakes and we are not quick enough. In Barcelona, when we will have new aero parts, we should be able to pick up some of the grip we are lacking now. I am sure we can be competitive enough to win again but this work will take time. The team is motivated, I’m sure of that and we will all do our bit. Now it is easy to criticize, but we know how to turn things round.”
The rain continued to fall in Shanghai, as the teams packed up as quickly as possible, for another flight and another race next Sunday: the fourth round of the championship takes place in Bahrain and so work starts at the Sakhir circuit almost immediately. The Ferrari F60s will be pretty much to the same configuration as here, although Team Principal, Stefano Domenicali said the engineers would look at the possibility of using KERS again, after it was left off the cars this weekend.
“We embarked on the race with the two drivers on different strategies and with the rain and the safety car periods, we managed to get ourselves into a good position, especially with Felipe, who at one point was third with a lot of fuel on board,” said Chris Dyer, Team Manager. “Unfortunately, a software management problem meant the engine cut out and forced him to retire. It’s a real shame, because we could have got a good result. Right from the start, Kimi complained about the lack of visibility when following others and several times that the engine power was dropping due to the water, but above all he suffered with a lack of grip after his stop. In the meantime, we changed his strategy and he was unable to get any higher than tenth. Once again we’ve had reliability problems which prevented us from picking up valuable points.”
Shanghai, 19 April 2009
K. Raikkonen: 10th, 1:59.15.235 + 1.31.750, 56 Laps
F. Massa: R, 46.32.964 Lap 21, 20 Laps
Chassis: K.Raikonen 276, F. Massa 275
Weather: air temperature 20 °C, track temperature 22/21 °C, rain.
In China, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro has yet again ended a race with no points to its name. In a race run entirely in the rain, Kimi Raikkonen finished tenth, while Felipe Massa retired on lap 21, when lying third, because of an electrical problem.
1. Sebastian VettelGermany Red Bull-Renault56 laps 1hr 57m 43.485s
2. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault+00m 10.9s
3. Jenson ButtonBritain Brawn-Mercedes+00m 44.9s
4. Rubens BarrichelloBrazil Brawn-Mercedes+00m 63.7s
5 Heikki KovalainenFinland McLaren-Mercedes+00m 65.1s
6. Lewis HamiltonBritain McLaren-Mercedes+00m 71.8s
7. Timo Glock Germany Toyota-Toyota+00m 74.4s
8. Sebastien BuemiSwitzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari+00m 76.4s
9. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault-Renault+00m 84.3s
10. Kimi RaikkonenFinland Ferrari-Ferrari+00m 91.7s
11. Sebastien BourdaisFrance Toro Rosso-Ferrari+00m 94.1s
12. Nick HeidfeldGermany BMW Sauber+00m 95.8s
13. Robert KubicaPoland BMW Sauber+1 lap
14. Giancarlo FisichellaItaly Force India-Mercedes+1 lap
15. Nico RosbergGermany Williams-Toyota+1 lap
16. Nelson Piquet JrBrazil Renault-Renault+1 lap
Rtd Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 50 laps completed accident
Rtd Kazuki Nakajima Japan Williams-Toyota 43 laps completed
Rtd Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari 20 laps completed mechanical
Rtd Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota-Toyota 18 laps completed acc damage
Fastest lap:
Rubens Barrichello Brazil Brawn-Mercedes 1m 52.592s lap 42
1 / Jenson Button / Brawn GP Formula One Team / 21
2 / Rubens Barrichello / Brawn GP Formula One Team / 15
3 / Sebastian Vettel / Red Bull Racing / 10
= / Timo Glock / Panasonic Toyota Racing / 10
5 / Mark Webber / Red Bull Racing / 9.5
6 / Jarno Trulli / Panasonic Toyota Racing / 8.5
7 / Nick Heidfeld / BMW Sauber F1 Team / 4
= / Fernando Alonso / ING Renault F1 Team / 4
= / Lewis Hamilton / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 4
= / Heikki Kovalainen / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 4
11 / Nico Rosberg / AT&T Williams / 3.5
12 / Sébastien Buemi / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 3
13 / Sébastien Bourdais / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 1
14 / Nelson Piquet Jr / ING Renault F1 Team / 0
= / Felipe Massa / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 0
= / Kimi Raikkonen / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 0
= / Robert Kubica / BMW Sauber F1 Team / 0
= / Kazuki Nakajima / AT&T Williams / 0
= / Adrian Sutil / Force India F1 Team / 0
= / Giancarlo Fisichella / Force India F1 Team / 0
POSITION / TEAM / POINTS
1 / Brawn GP Formula One Team / 36
2 / Red Bull Racing / 19.5
3 / Panasonic Toyota Racing / 18.5
4 / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 8
5 / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 4
= / BMW Sauber F1 Team / 4
= / ING Renault F1 Team / 4
8 / AT&T Williams / 3.5
9 / Force India F1 Team / 0
= / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 0
(ends)
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Release Number: Ferrari_368
Date of Issue: 28 September 2018. Time of Issue: 05:19:47