Nick Heidfeld “killed the race”! He had a fantastic start, zoomed from 6th to 2nd as he nearly took the lead on the outside through the first couple of corners. Sebastian Vettel was lucky to keep his lead, but Heidfeld was now stuck in between third place man Lewis Hamilton and Vettel – the two that were expected to be racing hard for victory. But we’ve seen before how difficult it is to pass the black Lotus Renault cars. Fernando Alonso has been stuck behind Petrov twice and now it was Hamilton’s turn, and pass he could not till it was too late. Vettel’s gap after the first lap was already something like 5 seconds so it was clear he would win, should the car hold up.
From thereon it was a race for minor positions. Some of the best racing took place midfield with Michael Schumacher and Kamui Kobayashi battling it out wheel to wheel for many laps. Kobayashi was victorious – his banzai attitude probably made the 7 time champ wonder ‘what the hell am I doing here fighting with a teenager?’ Schumacher took his revenge on Paul di Resta overtaking him for 9th position with just a lap or two remaining.
Hamilton fought hard with Alonso. There was a lot of defending from the Brit and then a collision from the Spaniard. It’s great to see good old road rage taking its toll on the racing.
The race top 10:
1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Jenson Button
3. Nick Heidfeld
4. Mark Webber
5. Felipe Massa
6. Fernando Alonso
7. Kamui Kobayashi
8. Lewis Hamilton
9. Michael Schumacher
10. Paul di Resta
Hamilton had 20 seconds added to his race time for making more than one change of direction in defending his position from Alonso. Alonso had 20 seconds added for causing a collision with Hamilton. This meant that Hamilton dropped one position from 7th to 8th and Kobayashi moved one spot higher. The penalty did not affect Alonso’s position and he remained 6th.
The points standings:
50 Sebastian Vettel
26 Jenson Button
22 Lewis Hamilton
22 Mark Webber
20 Fernando Alonso
16 Felipe Massa
15 Vitaly Petrov
15 Nick Heidfeld
6 Kamui Kobayashi
4 Sebastien Buemi
2 Adrian Sutil
2 Michael Schumacher
2 Paul Di Resta
The Chinese GP is just a week away so stay tuned for more F1 tipping!