Chinese Grand Prix 2011: Raceday - Formula One Highlights (Part 9)
Getting back to the action from the Chinese Grand Prix, it appeared that the Mercedes team had finally realized that it was in their young driver’s best interest to call him in to the pits for a tyre change.
Lap 26 kicked off. Nico Rosberg dived into the pits and opted to slap on a fresh set of soft tyres. The German came out in 5th position ahead of Paul di Resta in the Force India F1 car.
Moments later, there was activity in the Red Bull and McLaren garages. As both sets of mechanics were out, apparently ready for action and waiting on their respective cars, the cameras first turned towards Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton ahead. However,
as it turned out, Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber drove off the racing line, turned on their pit lane speed limiter and made the 80 kilometre per hour snail’s pace journey to their respective team garages. Both drivers opted for the soft compound tyres again.
Focusing on the action from the track, Fernando Alonso made another move on Michael Schumacher and this time round, the Spaniard finally managed to pull it off as both cars headed into turn 14. However, it soon turned out that the seven-time World Champion
intended to make his pit stop shortly. With that said, putting his foot off the gas paddle a little seemed justified as Alonso would also have to make his respective pit stop in the coming laps. The Mercedes team opted for a set of soft compound rubber for
their veteran driver. As a result, the Mercedes came out in 13th position as he made his way back to the track.
Turning our attention at the front of the pack, Sebastian Vettel extended his lead over Felipe Massa to around 3.7 seconds – A fair measure of the difference in class of the two cars this season or would it be fair chalking it down to a case of Massa underperforming?
Lap 28 kicked off as Lewis Hamilton used the Drag Reduction System (DRS) to get past Paul di Resta’s Force India car to take 6th spot. Staying with the McLarens, Jenson Button posted the fastest time for the effective lap. However, it was short
lived as Mark Webber completed his lap sooner.
Half the race had been completed, 28 laps remained.
To be continued in Part 10...
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