Chinese Grand Prix 2011: Raceday - Formula One Highlights (Part 8)
Welcome back to the action from the Shanghai circuit.
The battle between former rivals bearing youth and experience was at a crucial stage. Fernando Alonso was in a position to make his move on the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher ahead. The Ferrari driver took the outside line at the end of the back straight
but failed to pass the German driver – The Mercedes was clearly thriving in those conditions.
Mercedes GP's second driver, Nico Rosberg, was effectively in the lead. Were we going to see Michael Schumacher use each and every ounce of experience he had at his disposal to soak up the pressure and hold his ground, or was the exuberance of youth backed
by a strong Ferrari engine going to crack the Mercedes puzzle?
Elsewhere on track, Mark Webber was another active driver. Desperate to get past Kobayashi’s Sauber, he inquired over the radio over the state of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System on his car. Word from the Red Bull garage suggested that he still didn’t
have the option available.
Here it might be relevant discussing the functioning of a KERS. The technology seeks to add a nitrous boost effect to the motorsport. Whenever a Formula One car brakes at the speed of 300 kilometres per hour virtually at the beginning of a corner, the heat
energy from the braking is stored by the system. The stored energy can then be released at a later time to give a car that extra bit of speed to ideally make a move on the car ahead.
The race headed into Lap-25. Jenson Button made a pit stop and slapped on a fresh set of soft tyres. The British driver came out in 8th position – The McLaren had started off really well but failed to retain its spot at the top since the mistake
in the pit garage.
At the front of the track, Nico Rosberg’s lead over Sebastian Vettel was effectively down to just 3.7 seconds – Was this a sign of the Mercedes’ tyres wearing out? How long could Rosberg keep up with the act? Vettel in his relatively newer Pirellis was gaining
in on the Mercedes.
25 laps of the race were completed with still nearly 30 more to go. A lot had changed since the start of the race and there was still more than half the way to go.
To be continued in part 9...
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