2011 Chinese Grand Prix

 2011 Chinese Grand Prix

Racing data
3rd of 19 races in the 2011 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	2011 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix
Date:	April 17, 2011
Place:	Shanghai
Course:	Shanghai International Circuit
Length:	305.066 km in 56 laps of 5.451 km
Weather:	cloudy
Spectator:	~ 91,000
Pole position
Driver:	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Time:	1: 33.706 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
Time:	1: 38.993 min (lap 42)
Podium
First:	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
Second:	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Third:	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault

The 2011 Chinese Grand Prix took place on April 17th at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai and was the third race of the 2011 Formula 1 World Championship .

Reports

background

After the Malaysian Grand Prix , Sebastian Vettel led the drivers' standings with 24 points ahead of Jenson Button and 28 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton . Red Bull-Renault led the constructors' championship with 24 points ahead of McLaren-Mercedes and with 36 points ahead of Ferrari .

At the Chinese Grand Prix, Pirelli provided the drivers with the tire compounds hard (silver) and soft (yellow), as well as intermediates (light blue) and full wets (orange) for wet conditions .

With Rubens Barrichello , Fernando Alonso , Michael Schumacher , Hamilton, Vettel and Button (once each), six former winners competed in this Grand Prix.

training

In the first free practice, Vettel set the fastest lap ahead of his teammates Mark Webber and Hamilton. Luiz Razia drove into this training the Lotus of Jarno Trulli and participated for the first time in a Formula 1 training meeting. In addition, Nico Hülkenberg took over Force India from Adrian Sutil and Daniel Ricciardo took over the Toro Rosso from Jaime Alguersuari . In the second free practice Vettel kept the top position in front of Hamilton and Button. Vettel was also the fastest pilot in the third free practice. In that session, Button finished second and Hamilton third.

Qualifying

In the first section of qualifying, Nico Rosberg set the fastest lap. The HRT , Virgin and Lotus pilots and Webber were eliminated. The second section of qualifying was interrupted with the red flag 2:02 minutes before the end, as Vitaly Petrov rolled out shortly after making the jump into the third segment. When the signal to resume came eleven cars waited over a minute at the pit exit to be able to drive another fast lap. There were already a few overtaking maneuvers in the warm-up lap and not all pilots had a free lap. Hamilton, who had set the time beforehand, was the fastest pilot. The Williams and Sauber pilots as well as Nick Heidfeld , Schumacher and Adrian Sutil were eliminated. In the third qualifying segment, Vettel finally achieved the fastest lap ahead of Button and Hamilton. His lead was greater than seven tenths of a second.

run

Before the start of the race there were technical problems with Hamilton's McLaren. However, he managed to leave the pit lane and start on the grid within the last minute.

At the start, Vettel lost the lead to Button and was overtaken by both McLaren drivers. In the early stages, the first six drivers (Button, Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg, Felipe Massa and Alonso) managed to break away from the rest of the field. Shortly before the first pit stop phase, there were overtaking maneuvers in the rear field: Sergio Pérez passed Rubens Barrichello and Heidfeld passed Sébastien Buemi . Jaime Alguersuari made the first pit stop . However, there was a problem with his stop and he lost his right rear wheel shortly afterwards. He didn't make it back to the pits and fell out. It was the only retirement in this race.

After several pilots from the middle and back of the field were already in the pits, Rosberg, the first from the leading group, made his pit stop. He stayed on the softer tire compound. After Vettel drove past Hamilton on the 14th lap, he pitted at the same time as the leading button. Button accidentally hit the Red Bull pit first. Through this mishap, Vettel managed to overtake him. Meanwhile, the leading Hamilton was overtaken by Massa and Alonso and then pitted at the same time as Massa. After Alonso was two laps ahead, he too pitted to change tires. He fell back relatively far. Rosberg took over the first position.

Due to the different times of the first pit stop, there was again a larger group of leaders. Meanwhile, Webber, who started the race from 18th on the grid, had worked his way up to eleventh position. Vettel worked his way up to Rosberg round after round. However, there was no duel between the two, as Rosberg pitted earlier again. He completed his second stop at the same time as Hamilton and one lap after Button. At Rosberg the stop did not go optimally, but it stayed ahead of Hamilton. While other drivers stopped, Alonso managed to overtake Schumacher on the track. The Ferrari driver was several laps behind his opponent and initially had no chance of passing him.

At the top was now Vettel in front of Massa and Alonso, none of whom had stopped yet. However, Alonso was soon overtaken by Rosberg and Button, who had newer tires. After Vettel had made his second stop, Massa was initially in the lead. However, he pitted a few laps later and handed the lead over to Rosberg. While Webber was already in ninth position in the meantime, Hamilton overtook his McLaren team-mate Button. Hamilton had saved a set of tires in qualifying and now benefited from the better tires.

From the 37th lap, Button, Hamilton and Rosberg, who, in contrast to Vettel and the Ferraris, were on a three-stop strategy, pitted for their last stop. The order of the trio remained unchanged. Vettel took over the lead of the race. After 41 of 56 laps, the Red Bull driver was leading in front of Massa, Rosberg, Hamilton, Button and Alonso.

In the last 15 laps there have been some position shifts in the leading group. On the 42nd lap, Rosberg had problems lapping, as a result of which Hamilton overtook him. Three laps later he also passed Massa and took second position. In this phase he drove faster than the drivers in front of him and also caught up with Vettel lap after lap. During this, Button overtook Rosberg and Massa and was in fourth position. Rosberg also passed Massa and Webber had meanwhile taken sixth place from Alonso. However, I was still a long way behind the first five drivers.

After Vettel had defended himself against Hamilton on the start-finish line, Hamilton launched a surprising attack in a fast corner. He was successful and built a lead on Vettel. In the meantime, Webber had overtaken Massa and Rosberg and was fourth behind Button on the last lap. However, he managed to drive past Button and take third position.

Hamilton finally scored his first win of the season in front of Red Bull drivers Vettel and Webber. Button, Rosberg and Massa followed in the next places. The first six pilots were within 16 seconds. Behind that there was a bigger gap and the remaining points went to Alonso, Schumacher, Petrow and Kamui Kobayashi .

In the constructors' championship, the first three positions remained unchanged. For the drivers, Hamilton took over the second position from Button, who was now in third place.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Red Bull Racing	01	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull RB7	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	02	Mark Webber
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	03	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren MP4-26	Mercedes-Benz 2.4 V8	P
	04th	Jenson Button
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	05	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari 150 ° Italia	Ferrari 2.4 V8	P
	06th	Felipe Massa
Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team	07th	Michael sSchumacher	Mercedes MGP W02	Mercedes-Benz 2.4 V8	P
	08th	Nico Rosberg
Lotus Renault GP	09	Nick Heidfeld	Renault R31	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	10	Vitaly Petrov
AT&T Williams	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams FW33	Cosworth 2.4 V8	P
	12	Pastor Maldonado
Force India F1 Team	14th	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India VJM04	Mercedes-Benz 2.4 V8	P
		Adrian Sutil
	15th	Paul di Resta
Sauber F1 Team	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Clean C30	Ferrari 2.4 V8	P
	17th	Sergio Perez
Scuderia Toro Rosso	18th	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso STR6	Ferrari 2.4 V8	P
	19th	Daniel Ricciardo
		Jaime Alguersuari
Team Lotus	20th	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus T128	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	21st	Luiz Razia
		Jarno Trulli
HRT F1 team	22nd	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT F111	Cosworth 2.4 V8	P
	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi
Marussia Virgin Racing	24	Timo Glock	Virgin MVR-02	Cosworth 2.4 V8	P
	25th	Jérôme D'Ambrosio

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Hulkenberg drove the Force India with the number 14 in the first free practice. Sutil then took over the vehicle for the rest of the race weekend.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Ricciardo drove the Toro Rosso with the number 19 in the first free practice. Alguersuari then took over the vehicle for the rest of the race weekend.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Razia drove the Lotus with the number 21 in the first free practice. Trulli then took over the vehicle for the rest of the race weekend.

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	begin
01	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1: 35.674	1: 34.776	1: 33.706	01
02	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 35.924	1: 34.662	1: 34.421	02
03	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 36.091	1: 34.486	1: 34.463	03
04th	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1: 35.272	1: 35.850	1: 34.670	04th
05	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1: 35.389	1: 35.165	1: 35.119	05
06th	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1: 35.478	1: 35.437	1: 35.145	06th
07th	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1: 36.133	1: 35.563	1: 36.158	07th
08th	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1: 35.702	1: 35.858	1: 36.190	08th
09	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1: 36.110	1: 35,500	1: 36.203	09
10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1: 35.370	1: 35.149	no time	10
11	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1: 36.092	1: 35.874	-	11
12	Sergio Perez	Clean Ferrari	1: 36.046	1: 36.053	-	12
13	Kamui Kobayashi	Clean Ferrari	1: 36.147	1: 36.236	-	13
14th	Michael sSchumacher	Mercedes	1: 35.508	1: 36.457	-	14th
15th	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1: 35.911	1: 36.465	-	15th
16	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1: 35.910	1: 36.611	-	16
17th	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1: 36.121	1: 36,956	-	17th
18th	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1: 36.468	-	-	18th
19th	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus Renault	1: 37.894	-	-	19th
20th	Jarno Trulli	Lotus Renault	1: 38.318	-	-	20th
21st	Jérôme D'Ambrosio	Virgin Cosworth	1: 39.119	-	-	21st
22nd	Timo Glock	Virgin Cosworth	1: 39.708	-	-	22nd
23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1: 40.212	-	-	23
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1: 40.445	-	-	24
107 percent time : 1: 41.941 min (based on Q1 best time of 1: 35.272 min)

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r} racing cars with KERS

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	56	3	1: 36: 58.226	03	1: 40,415 (48th)
02	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	56	2	+ 5.198	01	1: 41,321 (47th)
03	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	56	3	+ 7.555	18th	1: 38,993 (42.)
04th	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	56	3	+ 10,000	02	1: 40.623 (39.)
05	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	56	3	+ 13,448	04th	1: 41,166 (41.)
06th	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56	2	+ 15.840	06th	1: 41.678 (39.)
07th	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	56	2	+ 30.622	05	1: 42.070 (41st)
08th	Michael sSchumacher	Mercedes	56	3	+ 31.026	14th	1: 41.215 (46.)
09	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	56	2	+ 57.404	10	1: 41.261 (50.)
10	Kamui Kobayashi	Clean Ferrari	56	2	+1: 03.273	13	1: 42,577 (32nd)
11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	56	2	+1: 08.757	08th	1: 42.614 (45th)
12	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	56	2	+1: 12.739	16	1: 42,406 (51.)
13	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	56	2	+1: 30.189	15th	1: 42.031 (45th)
14th	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	56	3	+1: 30.671	09	1: 41.696 (45th)
15th	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	55	3	+ 1 lap	11	1: 41,157 (54.)
16	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus Renault	55	2	+ 1 lap	19th	1: 42.672 (45th)
17th	Sergio Perez	Clean Ferrari	55	4th	+ 1 lap	12	1: 41.643 (39.)
18th	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	55	3	+ 1 lap	17th	1: 41.702 (46.)
19th	Jarno Trulli	Lotus Renault	55	2	+ 1 lap	20th	1: 42.052 (53rd)
20th	Jérôme D'Ambrosio	Virgin Cosworth	54	2	+ 2 rounds	21st	1: 44.806 (45th)
21st	Timo Glock	Virgin Cosworth	54	3	+ 2 rounds	22nd	1: 44.381 (54.)
22nd	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	54	3	+ 2 rounds	23	1: 43.384 (52nd)
23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	54	1	+ 2 rounds	24	1: 46.081 (41st)
-	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	09	1	DNF	07th	1: 45,700 ( 05.)

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r} racing cars with KERS

World Cup stands after the race

The first ten of the race got 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 68 02  Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 47 03  Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 38 04th  Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 37 05  Fernando Alonso Ferrari 26th 06th  Felipe Massa Ferrari 24 07th  Vitaly Petrov Renault 17th 08th  Nick Heidfeld Renault 15th 09  Nico Rosberg Mercedes 10 10  Kamui Kobayashi Clean Ferrari 7th 11  Michael sSchumacher Mercedes 6th 12  Sébastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4th

Item driver constructor Points 13  Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 2 14th  Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 2 15th  Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 0 16  Jarno Trulli Lotus Renault 0 17th  Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 0 18th  Jérôme D'Ambrosio Virgin Cosworth 0 19th  Heikki Kovalainen Lotus Renault 0 20th  Timo Glock Virgin Cosworth 0 21st  Sergio Perez Clean Ferrari 0 22nd  Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 0 23  Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 0 24  Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Red Bull-Renault 105 02  McLaren-Mercedes 85 03  Ferrari 50 04th  Renault 32 05  Mercedes 16 06th  Clean Ferrari 7th

Item constructor Points 07th  Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4th 08th  Force India-Mercedes 4th 09  Lotus Renault 0 10  Williams-Cosworth 0 11  Virgin Cosworth 0 12  HRT-Cosworth 0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Rubber pellets: How much the tires 'slim down'" (Motorsport-Total.com on April 15, 2011)
2. ^ "GP China in Shanghai / 1st free practice" (Motorsport-Total.com on April 15, 2011)
3. ^ "GP China in Shanghai / 2nd free practice" (Motorsport-Total.com on April 15, 2011)
4. ^ "GP China in Shanghai / 3rd free practice" (Motorsport-Total.com on April 16, 2011)
5. ↑ "McLaren-Mercedes overjoyed: Well, it works!" (Motorsport-Total.com on April 17, 2011)

Web links

Commons : Chinese Grand Prix 2011  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• Weekend statistics at Motorsport-Total.com