Michael Schumacher has leveled the points between himself and Fernando Alonso, causing the title fight to go to the wire. This is the first time the German has scored at the Chinese circuit.
The weekend started badly for the Scuddera Ferrari team, with Filipe Massa having to take a 10 place drop due to an engine change on Friday. Then during the Saturday sessions the rain came, and the Bridgestone tyres seemed to not work at all.
It all looked bad for Michael. He pulled out an amazing lap during Quali 3 to get the 5th place on the grid. He was however behind both the Renaults and Honda cars.
Sunday morning brought more hardship for the team, as it rained again. Would the Bridgestone tyres work in race conditions? Everyone thought no.
The Ferraris seemed to struggle off the grid, with Michael going back a place after lap 1. The pace man looked to be Kimi Raikkonen, who nearly took second position from the start, but had to yield in corner 2 to Jenson Button, who had got ahead of his teammate.
The first corner melee ended with Alonso showing a massive pace advantage over Fisichella then Jenson, followed by Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen.
Raikkonen looked to be on a mission and overtook Button before the end of the first lap, and made ground on the Renault cars.
By lap 5 Alonso had shown that his pace over the weekend was real, and had put nearly 7 seconds on his teammate, who was closely followed by Kimi.
Meanwhile, Michael was making up for his bad start, and on lap 8 he passed his old teammate Rubens Barrichello for 5th place, and started to make inroads into the Jenson Buttons lead over him.
Lap 13 saw Kimi make a pass on Fisichella to take second place. Also, Michael had made up the gap to Button and overtook what seemed to be a struggling Honda. It was later heard on the radio that Button's rear tyres had gone off, and he was struggling. He pitted shortly after on lap 15, the first of the front runners to get a new set of boots.
Lap 16 saw Kimi stop for fuel, he however did not take on new tyres. Instead he was doing what most of the drivers did, wear the tread on these tyres down, so they became practically slicks.
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Article comments
1 - carlo cimmarrusti
i am very happy for the ferrari win e also congratulation to michel. takes also as you can see it , lot class and good car and good organizationto make the write move. thank you....