Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel eyeing for a hat-trick in the Chinese Grand Prix: Formula 1 News
Red Bull have started the 2011 Formula 1 season on a high note, after winning the first two races in Australia and Malaysia. Although McLaren have shown some improvement during the first two race weekends, still they have been unable to win any race.
It will be interesting to see whether the British team manages to stop the reigning champions from winning the championship in the upcoming race this weekend.
The third race of the season will take place at Shanghai in China, on Sunday 17 April and Red Bull will look for a hat-trick of winning races. They have a strong car and driver Sebastian Vettel who has been able to extract the maximum out his challenger.
The young German managed to take a pole position in the Australian Grand Prix and went onto win the race comfortably.
Things did not look ideal for the youngest Formula 1 champion during the practice and qualifying sessions in Malaysia, as he was unable to match the pace of his rivals. Just when it looked that McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton would qualify at the top, Vettel clocked
a lightening lap time to claim the second consecutive pole of this season.
The race proved to be far more interesting and challenging for the German, but he kept his cool and emerged as the winner. This was the fourth consecutive victory for Vettel starting from his 2010 campaign, where he won the final two races of the season
in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. He will be eyeing to break the record of his compatriot, Michael Schumacher, who has won seven straight races in 2004.
The second Red Bull driver, Mark Webber, will try to stop his team-mate from winning the next race of the season. The Australian gave a tough time to Vettel in the previous season, but failed to repeat his performances this year. However, he will be confident
to bounce back just like his team-mate did in the 2010 season.
One team which has really posted a challenge to the current champions is McLaren. The British team was not close enough to their rivals in the opening race of the season, but bounced back strongly at Sepang. Both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button had the
similar pace to the Red Bull racing team and came close to winning the last race.
The Chinese circuit will have some similarities to the Malaysian layout. Both tracks have long straights, but the latter one had some fast corners. However, the track temperature will be a lot cooler in Shanghai.
Although the fight for the championship seems to be between Red Bull and McLaren at the moment, Ferrari will not sit quiet for long. The scarlet car has achieved the race pace but lacks the speed in qualifying. Top officials of the team have gathered in
Italy to find out solutions to their problems and they will be eyeing the first podium in the next race.
Apart from these teams, Renault has also sprung a surprise with two back-to-back podium finishes. They will look to bring some more upgrades and perform consistently throughout the 2011 season.
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