• Chinese Grand Prix

Post-race driver rundown

Laurence Edmondson and Martin Williamson April 18, 2010
Lewis Hamilton congratulates Jenson Button on his race win © Sutton Images
Enlarge
Related Links

Jenson Button - 1st He is fast becoming the master of strategy this season. A safety car negated his big lead halfway through the race, but he kept his head and looked after his tyres to take his second win of the season. The 25-point reward puts him at the top of the championship standings heading into the European season

Lewis Hamilton - 2nd He produced another fantastic drive through the field after a botched pit-stop strategy. He will be frustrated, as he was faster than Button for much of the race but chewed up his tyres in the process. When it came to attacking for the lead he simply didn't have the grip to the fight to his team-mate

Nico Rosberg - 3rd He kept his head down to take his second podium in as many races and move up to second in the championship. He might be disappointed he gave away positions to Button at the start and then Hamilton later on, but his car wasn't a match for the McLarens today

Fernando Alonso - 4th Another fine drive in the face of adversity. He will be kicking himself for jumping the start, but made up for that mistake with a brilliant fight through the field. After being stuck behind team-mate Massa at the last two races, he finally cried enough and barged past him heading into the pits. It was a rude manoeuvre and one that could create a different atmosphere in the Ferrari garage at the coming races

Robert Kubica - 5th Outperforming his Renault for the third race in a row, he didn't get involved in any tit-for-tat fighting on the track but still held his own when under pressure. He is slowly racking up the points and is comfortably ahead of Webber's Red Bull in the standings

Sebastian Vettel - 6th Everything went against him today. He lost position to Webber at the start, which meant he had to queue for tyres at the first stop, and spent much of the race struggling to match Hamilton's race pace. The car is still quickest over a single lap, but in tricky race conditions there is still plenty of work to do

Vitaly Petrov - 7th His first career points in F1 came after a race of two halves. He made gains early on but dropped as low as tenth midway through the race. But by saving his tyres he was able to charge back through the field at the end of the race, in a display reminiscent of some of his GP2 triumphs

Mark Webber - 8th It was another race to forget after he set his car up for wet conditions but failed to reap the rewards. He was angry at being punted off the track by Hamilton on the restart after the second safety car and never really recovered. But after what he did to the McLaren driver in Australia, he will probably have to bite his tongue and accept it was a racing incident

Felipe Massa - 9th He appeared to be in a never-ending battle with Barrichello, and stuck behind the Williams he was unable to extract the best from his Ferrari. However, with Alonso making the most of an even worse set of circumstances, he has no excuse for not being bolder and cutting through the field

Michael Schumacher- 10th His constant struggle with rear traction this weekend was magnified throughout the race by the difficult conditions. There were flashes of his glory days as he did well to hold off faster cars on a number of occasions, but ultimately his poor set-up cost him dear and he dropped back through the field. His apparent lack of concern after the race was typical of Schumacher this season, but the pressure is mounting as he now lies 40 points off Rosberg in the standings

Adrian Sutil - 11th He started the race well but will be disappointed not to score points in the kind of conditions he usually excels in. Ultimately he lost out in the tyre changes and didn't have the car to take the fight to the 10 cars in front of him

Rubens Barrichello - 12th Not for the first time this year the Williams looked a little out of its depth when racing in the top ten. Barrichello put up a decent fight against some faster cars, such as Massa's Ferrari, but could not sustain that defence for an entire race

Poised for the start © Getty Images
Enlarge
Jaime Algueruari- 13th A good start which saw him as high as fifth was undone when he clipped a backmarker and lost a wing. On dry tyres he showed pace and deserved a better finish than he achieved

Heikki Kovalainen - 14th A good result in the battle of the new boys and benefited from the decision to stay out on dry tyres while all around were switching to wets

Nico Hulkenberg - 15th A superb swerving manoeuvre helped him avoid the first-bend pile up but thereafter, like Barrichello, was not helped by making pit stops - six of them in his case

Bruno Senna - 16th His second finish of the season and only two laps off the pace will means HRT head to Europe with a spring in their step. Came up with one of the better excuses when he said his visor was too dark for the conditions

Karun Chanhok - 17th After a wretched debut, he has now finished the last three grands prix, albeit five, three and four laps adrift. A solid performance in an underpowered but reliable car after having to start from the pit lane

Jarno Truli - DNF (Hydraulics - 26 laps) Made little impression before his race was ended by hydraulic problems

Lucas di Grassi - DNF (Air leak - 8 laps) Started from the pit lane because of a clutch problem, made little impression and soon retired

Pedro de la Rosa - DNF (Engine - 7 laps) His decision to stay out on slicks while all around franticly darted in and out of the pits saw him as high as fourth before he suffered engine failure. Eight starts and one finish for Sauber this season is real cause for concern

Tonio Liuzzi - DNF (Accident - 1 lap) Locked his brakes on the fourth corner, skidded sideways across the track and took out two others. A novice's error

Sebastien Buemi - DNF (Accident - 1 lap) A weekend which started with a high-speed crash ended with a low-speed one as he was wiped out by Liuzzi on the fourth turn

Kamui Kobayashi - DNF (Accident - 1 lap) As if Sauber's problems weren't bad enough, being taken out by Liuzzi just capped them

Timo Glock - DNS His day ended on the grid

Laurence Edmondson is an assistant editor on ESPNF1

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Laurence Edmondson Close
Laurence Edmondson is deputy editor of ESPNF1 Laurence Edmondson grew up on a Sunday afternoon diet of Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell and first stepped in the paddock as a Bridgestone competition finalist in 2005. He worked for ITV-F1 after graduating from university and has been ESPNF1's deputy editor since 2010

ABOUT COOKIES

To help make this website better, to improve and personalize your experience and for advertising purposes, are you happy to accept cookies and other technologies.

More Info Here Cookie Choices