2011 Chinese Grand Prix
The Grand Prix of China 2011 was held on 17 April at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai and was the third race of the Formula 1 2011 season.
- 3.1 qualifying
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
- 4.2 Constructors' Championship
Reports
Background
After the Malaysian Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel led the drivers' championship with 24 points ahead of Jenson Button and 28 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Red Bull -Renault resulted in the constructors' championship with 24 points ahead of McLaren -Mercedes and 36 points ahead of Ferrari.
At the Grand Prix of China put Pirelli riders the Hard tire compounds (silver) and soft (yellow), as well as for wet conditions Intermediates (light blue ) and Full - Wets (orange ) are available.
With Rubens Barrichello, Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Hamilton, Vettel and Button ( once each ) were six former winners of this Grand Prix.
Training
In the first free practice Vettel posted the fastest lap in front of his team-mate Mark Webber and Hamilton. Luiz Razia drove in this training the Lotus of Jarno Trulli and participated for the first time in a Formula 1 training meeting. Moreover, took over in this training Nico Hülkenberg the Force India of Adrian Sutil and Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso Jaime Alguersuari to. In the second free practice Vettel retained the top position ahead of Hamilton and Button. Vettel was in the third free practice session of the fastest pilot. In this meeting it was Button second and Hamilton third.
Qualifying
In the first phase of qualifying Nico Rosberg achieved the fastest lap. The HRT, Virgin and Lotus pilots and Webber dropped out. The second phase of qualifying was 2:02 minutes before the end interrupted with the red flag, as Vitaly Petrov shortly after he had made it into the third segment, rolled out. When the signal came to recovery, waited eleven cars over a minute at the pit exit, able to still drive a fast lap can. Even in the warm-up lap, there was some overtaking and not all pilots had a clear lap. Hamilton, who had set the time before, was the fastest pilot. The Williams and Sauber drivers and Nick Heidfeld, Schumacher and Adrian Sutil dropped out. In the third qualifying segment Vettel finally achieved the fastest lap ahead of Button and Hamilton. His lead was there greater than seven tenths of a second.
Race
Before the start of the race there were technical problems with the McLaren of Hamilton. He managed, however, still within the last minute to leave the pit lane and drive to the starting grid.
At the start Vettel lost the lead to Button and was overtaken by the two McLaren drivers. In the initial phase succeeded for the first six pilots (Button, Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg, Felipe Massa and Alonso ) settle from the rest of the field. Shortly before the first pit stop phase, there were in the rear box overtaking: Sergio Pérez went to Rubens Barrichello and Heidfeld past Sébastien Buemi. The first pit stop led Jaime Alguersuari through. However, there was a problem in his stop and he lost shortly after his right rear wheel. He did not make it back to the pits and retired. It was the only failure in this race.
Having already had several pilots from the middle and back of the pack in the box, with Rosberg completed the first of the top group his pit stop. He remained on the softer tire compound. After Vettel was passed in the 14th round at Hamilton, he went to coincide with the leading button on the box. This button accidentally drove first to the Red Bull box. By this mishap Vettel managed to overtake him. The leading in the meantime, Hamilton was meanwhile overtaken by Massa and Alonso and Massa went then at the same time to the box. After Alonso was two laps in the lead, he went to change tires on the box. He fell back quite far. Rosberg took over the first position.
Due to the different time points of the first pit stops, there was again a major leading group. However had Webber, who went from 18th starting position on the grid, worked its way to the eleventh position. Vettel worked his way round to round approach to Rosberg. To a duel between the two, it did not come as Rosberg earlier went to the box again. He completed his second stop at the same time with Hamilton and Button lap after lap. At the stop Rosberg was not perfect, but he stopped in front of Hamilton. While other pilots stopped succeeded Alonso to overtake Schumacher on the track. The Ferrari driver was several laps behind his opponent and had first to pass a chance on him.
At the top of Vettel now lay ahead of Massa and Alonso, who all had not yet stopped. However, Alonso was soon overtaken by Rosberg and Button, who possessed newer tires. After Vettel had made his second stop, first lay Massa in the lead. However, he also came a few laps later to the box and handed the lead to Rosberg. While Webber was in the meantime already on the ninth position, Hamilton overtook his McLaren team-mate Button. Hamilton had been saving a set of tires in qualifying and now benefited from the better tires.
From the 37th round went successively Button, Hamilton and Rosberg, who were on a three-stop strategy as opposed to Vettel and the Ferraris, at the last pit stop. The order of the trio remained unchanged. The leadership of the race took over Vettel. After 41 of 56 rounds of the Red Bull driver led ahead of Massa, Rosberg, Hamilton, Button and Alonso.
In the last 15 laps were in the lead group some shifts in position. In the 42nd round Rosberg had problems when lapping, which Hamilton overtook him. Three laps later he drove by and Massa and took the second position. He drove faster than the pilots ahead of him at this stage and also brought the gap to Vettel on lap after lap. Meanwhile Button Rosberg and Massa overtook and was on the fourth position. Rosberg also walked past Massa and Webber had taken in the meantime to sixth place from Alonso. Had but still a larger gap to the first five pilots.
After Vettel had not defended on the start-finish line against Hamilton, Hamilton began a surprise attack in a fast curve. He was successful, and built a lead over Vettel out. Meanwhile, Webber Massa and Rosberg had passed and was on the last lap behind Button in fourth place. However, he managed to also drive past the button and take the third position.
Hamilton finally scored his first win of the season against the Red Bull drivers Vettel and Webber. Button, Rosberg and Massa followed on the next places. The first six drivers were within 16 seconds. Behind it there was a larger gap and the remaining points went to Alonso, Schumacher, Petrov and Kamui Kobayashi.
In the Constructors' World Championships, the first three positions remained unchanged. When the drivers Hamilton took over the second position from Button, who was now in third place.
Message list
Classifications
Qualifying
Race
WM stands after the race
, The first ten of the race were 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point (s).