Chinese Grand Prix 2011: Raceday - Formula One Highlights (Part 3)
It is perhaps a given in Formula One that on track theatrics and controversy go hand in hand. While the crowd in China was being treated to some of the best on track overtaking, the race saw its first talking point as Vitantonio Liuzzi was under investigation
by the stewards for jumping the start – The Hispania Racing car had already struggled over the course of the weekend, an additional drive through penalty would further dent their aspirations of competing with Virgin Racing.
Mark Webber was easily the busiest driver on track. It was absolutely a delight for any motor-head watching how artistically the Red Bull was picking its way past the traffic ahead. No, he wasn’t lapping any of the cars ahead, they were all fighting for
track position as the Australian got past Rubens Barrichello’s Williams to take 15th position.
Just ahead the Red Bull action, Vitaly Petrov made his move on Jaime Alguersuari to get his Renault up to 11th position. Meanwhile, Paul di Resta radioed his team and told them that there could be a problem with the rear end of his car.
The race headed into lap 8. Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap as what appeared to be a McLaren fight for the fastest lap. The two Mclaren drivers were consistently topping the time sheets. Hamilton effectively closed up to within 1.2 seconds of his teammate
Button.
Nick Heidfeld was closing up on the two Torro Rossos of Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi. The Renault team started reasonably well but failed to make their mark during qualifying. However, it was evident that the French manufacturers had set up the car really
well for the race.
Moments later, Perez got by a struggling Barrichello for 16th position. The Williams was evidently not up to its usual pace but there was no word from the Brazilian’s race engineer to confirm that yet.
While Mark Webber seemed rather efficient till climbing up to 15th position, the veteran didn’t appear to make much inroads after taking the position. In a contrasting tale of two Red Bulls, Webber was running an average of 2 seconds a lap slower
than his teammate Sebastian Vettel – Was it a sign that the Pirellis were starting to lose their X-factor for Webber? Based on his grid position, he couldn’t afford to pit sooner than the frontrunners.
To be continued in part 4...
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