Fernando Alonso wins Chinese Grand Prix as Kimi Raikkonen finishes 2nd and Lewis Hamilton 3rd
FERNANDO ALONSO won his first ever Chinese Grand Prix this weekend – in his iconic style strategic and dominant.
It was the first win for Ferrari at the Shanghai International Circuit since Kimi Raikkonen drove to victory in 2007 – his championship-winning year. The Finn managed 2nd place for Lotus this time.
Lewis Hamilton, who was on pole and won in 2011, managed to finished 3rd – but only just, with Sebastian Vettel pushing him right to the finish line in a tense battle for a podium finish and three additional points.
But in a class of his own, Fernando Alonso admitted that ‘with no one dominating the Championship, it makes it extremely interesting’. The 31-year-old Spaniard said: "It couldn''t have gone better than this today! I hadn''t won since Germany and this has a special feeling because it was a tricky race full of action. Along with the second place I got in Australia, this result shows that the car is competitive and that we are working in the right direction to always be in the fight for the podium.
“For that, I have to thank the team for the huge efforts it has made both here and back in the factory. They have worked so hard to put me in this position from which I can fight with the others on equal terms. We had a good feeling all through the weekend and qualifying third gave us the possibility of fighting for the top places.”
While Ferrari showed extremely good pace over the weekend, it was Lewis Hamilton who topped the timesheets in all three sessions of qualifying – an area Alonso believes the team can improve in.
“On top of that, maybe we were owed some good luck,” he added. “Along with that all the important factors worked perfectly, such as set-up, strategy, calling the pit stops and the stops themselves. All together it produced a win that wasn''t easy at the end of a race in which we made the most of our pace and did a good job of managing the tyres, which was definitely the most dangerous aspect.”
“This is only the third race. We are under no illusions and we must continue to concentrate and do all we can to improve still further".
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