Vettel completes victory in wet Chinese grand prix
Vettel earned Red Bull their first ever grand prix victory
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Sunday, 19, Apr 2009 09:07
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel has won the Chinese grand prix in soaking conditions in Shanghai, while Mark Webber completed a one-two for the team.
Drivers' championship leader Jenson Button completed the podium positions in third, while his Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello was in fourth place.
It was another wretched day for Ferrari's Felipe Massa as he stopped midway through the race.
Lewis Hamilton continued to pick up points despite his McLaren still being well off the pace. The defending world champion managed to pick up sixth place after Force India's Adrian Suttil span out with six laps to go.
With the rain lashing down the race was started under safety car conditions and the cars were not released to race for another nine laps.
Unfortunately for Fernando Alonso he pitted from second place on lap eight and failed to get through the field with a heavy fuel load.
The cars in the midfield took advantage of the wet conditions and there were several overtaking manoeuvres as the drivers tried their best to keep the cars on the track.
Hamilton was one of the drivers thriving in the conditions, working his way up to sixth place by passing Kimi Raikkonen, only to spin out of control and give the place back.
At the front of the field Vettel was building a big lead and was able to come out in third place, only five seconds behind the Brawn GP's even after he had pitted and they had not.
When Button pitted Vettel re-took the lead but the safety car was called upon again soon after when Robert Kubica ran straight over the back of Toyota's Jarno Trulli – destroying the front of his car and the back of the Italian's in the process.
While the safety car was out there was still some drama when Sebastian Buemi in the Toro Rosso went into the back of Vettel, luckily for the German there was no damage to his car.
When the racing got back under way the main fight was between Button and Webber for second place.
The Briton handed the place to Webber when he aquaplaned at the end of the back straight. However, the Red Bull driver gave the place back inside a lap when he lost control.
Webber finally made sure of second place when he overtook Button round the outside a lap later.
The Red Bulls streaked away in the latter stages of the race, leaving the rest of the field to battle it out over the minor places.
Heikki Kovalainen managed to finish just ahead of Hamilton in fifth place; Timo Glock was seventh for Toyota, while Buemi got the final points place in eighth.