Safety car spares Hamilton and Alonso’s blushes (Chinese Grand Prix analysis)
The second safety car period gave Hamilton the opportunity to attack Kubica
Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso owed their large points hauls in Shanghai at least partly thanks to the second appearance of the safety car.
The erased the huge amount of time they had lost with extra pit stops at the start of the race and, in Alonso’s case, a penalty for jumping the start.
But Robert Kubica was left to rue the second safety car period which ultimately cost him a podium finish.
The start
Chinese Grand Prix - lap 1 position change (click to enlarge)
As mentioned in the pre-race analysis, the Shanghai layout tends to keep the cars in grid order at the start. Sure enough, the major changes on the first lap came because of Fernando Alonso’s jumped start and the crash which eliminated Vitantonio Liuzzi, Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi.
However Mark Webber did manage to get his revenge on team mate Sebastian Vettel by passing him at the start, as Vettel did to him at Sepang two weeks ago.
Top three drivers’ lap times
Chinese Grand Prix- top three drivers' lap times (click to enlarge)
Hamilton’s off-the-chart spike on laps six and seven show where he lost a huge amount of time to leaders Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button because of his early switch to intermediate tyres.
Once back on slicks he was able to lap much quicker than them whenever he found clear air. He set the fastest lap of the race very early, on lap 13, when the track was at its driest.
Lap 19 was Rosberg’s undoing as he ran off the track and was subsequently passed by Button. The five seconds he lost on that lap are obscured on the chart because of the pit stop he made immediately afterwards.
The McLaren drivers made their final pit stops on laps 37 (Hamilton) and 38 (Button). From that point on it was a straight race to the flag between them. Button pulled away initially, pulling a ten second lead over his team mate.
But he went off the track on lap 51 at the hairpin and from that point on Hamilton was quicker. It’s likely he spent the first part of this stint preserving his tyres knowing how long they’d have to last – look at the wear Webber suffered having made his final stop for intermediates two laps before Hamilton.
On the final lap Hamilton took a second out of his team mate’s lead to finish within 1.5 seconds of Button. What we don’t know is whether the team were telling them to cool it while Hamilton pressed on, hoping his team mate would slip up again.
Pit stops
2010 Chinese Grand Prix pit stops (click to enlarge)
The unpredictable weather made a mockery of several teams’ strategists, particularly those who made early stops for intermediate tyres and then returned to the pits only a couple of laps later to go back to slicks.
By the end of the race Jaime Alguersuari and Nico Hülkenberg took the record with six visits to the pits each. Alonso finished fourth despite pitting three times in the first six laps.
As the chart above shows Renault were the only team to get the call right for both their cars. Button, Rosberg, Pedro de la Rosa and Heikki Kovalainen also stayed out – the Lotus driver was rewarded with a short-lived elevation to the dizzy heights of sixth place on lap eight.
Lap chart
Chinese Grand Prix lap chart (click to enlarge)
The different fortunes of the two Ferrari drivers is striking. Their strategies were similar but despite the added advantage of a drive-through penalty Alonso battled through the field much more effectively than his team mate.
Felipe Massa ended the race with the Red Bulls and Renaults separating him from his team mate.
After reaching sixth Kovalainen’s tumble back down the running order was inevitable. But the much-delayed Hülkenberg never caught the Lotus driver, ending the race nine seconds behind the Finn.
Interactive race chart
View interactive chart full screen
The interactive race chart makes it easy to see the state of play before that crucial second safety car period. Hover over lap 21 to see just how far ahead Button and Rosberg were before the safety car was summoned so the marshals could recover debris from Jaime Alguersuari’s car.
At this point Hamilton, seventh, was 54 seconds behind and Alonso, tenth, was 76 seconds adrift. Without the safety car, Rosberg and Kubica would have remained out of Hamilton’s reach and Alonso might not even have got past Vitaly Petrov.
It takes nothing away from the quality of their drives which were distinguished by few mistakes and some excellent passes. But you can see why Renault are regretting Kubica’s lost podium.
2010 Chinese Grand Prix
- Sunday in Shanghai – a fans’ view of the 2010 Chinese Grand Prix
- 2010 Chinese Grand Prix – the complete F1 Fanatic review
- Ferrari deny Alonso-Massa rift
- Points for Petrov and first McLaren 1-2 since 2007 (Chinese GP stats and facts)
- Safety car spares Hamilton and Alonso’s blushes (Chinese Grand Prix analysis)
- Chinese Grand Prix fastest laps
- Chinese Grand Prix in pictures
- Webber loses out in safety car incident
- Button leads McLaren to one-two in wet race
- Hamilton’s pit lane dice with Vettel could cost him second (Update: no penalty)
Nova said on 19th April 2010, 19:32
Very nice site, informative w/the chart/analysis. Good race, yet the weather played a big part. Great drive from Alonso although he messed up his own race at the start..on some of the comments, on Rosberg, he really hasnt raced anyone yet, by good calls from the pit and staying out of trouble, he managed 2 podiums…on Button, where did he finish the last “dry” race? On LH, sure he does some great passes, kills his tires being “spectacular” and has nothing left for the end..Kubiza is very good..Massa needs to up his game..on Shue, he’ll get used to the new F1..I have to watch on Speed, I like the guys, way too many commercials, especially with 2 laps to go..think they use the feed. If Alonso didnt jump the start, Im afraid he may have won this hands down.
martinb said on 19th April 2010, 20:33
I was interested in the speed trap data from Live Timing:
HAM 318
BAR 313
VET 310
MAS 310
ALG 308
ALO 307
Button is not on the list. Did he have a higher downforce setting than Hamilton, anticipating wetter conditions?
wasiF1 said on 20th April 2010, 2:27
i thought that Hamilton was having a wet set up on Saturday?
martinb said on 19th April 2010, 20:39
Suggestions:
Put the Pit Stops chart in finishing order so we can see at a glance if some strategies were better than others.
Note the lap no’s the SC was deployed. On the interactive lap chart it’s not always clear whether a blip is due to the SC or the leader pitting. In fact, if SC periods could be greyed on the chart, that would be great.