2011 Chinese Grand Prix Explained

Type:F1
Country:China
Grand Prix:Chinese
Previous Round:2011 Malaysian Grand Prix
Next Round:2011 Turkish Grand Prix
Date:17 April
Year:2011
Official Name:2011 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix
Race No:3
Season No:19
Location:Shanghai International Circuit
Shanghai, People's Republic of China
Course:Permanent racing facility
Course Mi:3.387
Course Km:5.451
Distance Laps:56
Distance Mi:189.559
Distance Km:305.066
Weather:Fine and Dry[1] Air Temp 22°C
Track Temp 32°C dropping to 26°C
Pole Driver:Sebastian Vettel
Pole Team:Red Bull Racing-Renault
Pole Time:1:33.706
Pole Country:GER
Fast Driver:Mark Webber
Fast Team:Red Bull Racing-Renault
Fast Time:1:38.993
Fast Lap:42
Fast Country:AUS
First Driver:Lewis Hamilton
First Team:McLaren-Mercedes
First Country:GBR
Second Driver:Sebastian Vettel
Second Team:Red Bull Racing-Renault
Second Country:GER
Third Driver:Mark Webber
Third Team:Red Bull Racing-Renault
Third Country:AUS

The 2011 Chinese Grand Prix (formally the 2011 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix)[2] was a Formula One motor race held on 17 April 2011 at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. It was the third round of the 2011 Formula One season. The 56-lap race was won by McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton after starting from third on the grid, also becoming the first ever multiple winner of the Chinese Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel finished second in a Red Bull Racing, having started from pole position, and teammate Mark Webber completed the podium, in third place having started eighteenth.[3]

As a consequence of the race, Vettel's lead in the World Drivers' Championship was cut to 21 points by Hamilton, who moved into second place in the championship. Hamilton's McLaren teammate Jenson Button, who finished fourth in China, fell 9 points behind Hamilton in third, a single point ahead of Webber. In the World Constructors' Championship, Red Bull's championship lead was also cut from 24 points to 20 by McLaren, with Ferrari a further 35 points behind in third position after drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso finished in sixth and seventh places respectively.

Report

Background

Heading into the race, Sebastian Vettel led the Championship on the maximum 50 points after winning the first two races. Jenson Button was in second place in the standings after a 2nd and a 6th that put him on 26 points - just over half Vettel's total, and almost a race win behind. The other McLaren of Lewis Hamilton and yet to reach the podium, Mark Webber, were third and fourth respectively, both on 22 points. Fernando Alonso was fifth with 20 points, followed by Heidfeld on 17, Massa on 16 and Petrov on 15. In both races thus far in 2011 the podium had featured Vettel as the winner, a McLaren in second place and a Renault in third.

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its silver-banded hard compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound as the softer "option" compound. This was the same tyre selection that Bridgestone had chosen bring to the Chinese Grand Prix for the previous year.[4] [5]

In the Constructors' table, Red Bull Racing led with 72 points, one and a half times McLaren's score (48), and double Ferrari's (36). Despite having two podiums, Renault were still behind Ferrari; but only just - with 30 points - and were putting up a good fight for the time being. Sauber were fifth in the standings, with 6 points, Toro Rosso and Force India had 4, and Mercedes had 2. By this point of the season, Williams were yet to finish a race.

Qualifying

Sebastian Vettel took a comfortable pole position in qualifying, with the second placed Jenson Button 0.7 seconds behind him and Button's McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton in third. Mark Webber had a torrid session, eliminated in the first part of qualifying after electrical problems in the earlier free practice, placing him 18th on the starting grid.[6]

Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes found himself fourth, Rosberg also recorded the fastest time of the first part of the qualifying session. Behind him were the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa, who had been unable to keep up with the pace of Red Bull or McLaren, Alonso recording a time almost a second off Vettel's pole position lap. Vitaly Petrov recorded a time in part two that got him through to the final part of qualifying, however, his car developed problems and stopped on the track, meaning he was unable to take part in the final session and would take the tenth place on the grid.

Race

Lewis Hamilton faced a stressful situation just minutes before the start of the race; a fuel problem with his car meant that if he had started his journey to the grid just 35 seconds later, he would have had to start from the pit-lane.[7] Hamilton however, went on to a thrilling three-stop race, overtaking his two-stopping rival and World Drivers' Championship leader Sebastian Vettel on lap 52 of the 56 lap race. Vettel had had a poor start to his race, being beaten on the first lap by both McLarens, with Jenson Button initially holding the upper hand, but his teammate Hamilton putting in a series of fastest laps that would ultimately give him victory to Button's fourth-place finish.[8] Also Hamilton performed an overtake on his teammate in Turn 1, about the midpoint of the race to take second place.

Mark Webber drove a spectacular race from 18th on the starting grid to bring his Red Bull to the chequered flag in 3rd position, beating Jenson Button for the final podium place on only the last lap.[8] Button had made a terrible mistake on the 15th lap when bringing his car into the pits, stopping in the Red Bull pit before being waved off by the Red Bull mechanics into his own McLaren pit one place ahead. The mistake cost Button time, as it did for Sebastian Vettel who was also coming into the pits and had to wait behind Button for him to realise his error; although Button entered the pits in the lead, but exited behind Vettel.[7] Jaime Alguersuari lost a wheel on his exit from the pits on lap 10, forcing his retirement from the race.[8] He was the race's only retirement, meaning that this race set the record for the most finishers (23). The record was beaten later in the season, in Valencia, where all 24 starters finished the race.

The race cut Sebastian Vettel's championship lead to 21 points from second placed Lewis Hamilton, with Red Bull constructors lead to McLaren falling to 20 points. Hamilton was ecstatic after his victory, saying "It was one of the best races I've experienced. It feels amazing to be able to bring home a victory for the guys in the factory."[8]

Due to the lack of all but one retirement in the course of the race and the size of the grid at the time, Narain Karthikeyan posted a finishing position of 23rd for HRT. This would earn Karthikeyan the title of the lowest finishing position ever recorded in Formula One history at the time. This record would then be broken five races later when Karthikeyan posted a 24th finishing position at the 2011 European Grand Prix.

Classification

Qualifying

PosNoDriverConstructorPart 1Part 2Part 3Grid
11 Sebastian VettelRed Bull Racing-Renault1:35.6741:34.7761:33.7061
24 Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1:35.9241:34.6621:34.4212
33 Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1:36.0911:34.4861:34.4633
48 Nico RosbergMercedes1:35.2721:35.8501:34.6704
55 Fernando AlonsoFerrari1:35.3891:35.1651:35.1195
66 Felipe MassaFerrari1:35.4781:35.4371:35.1456
719 Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1:36.1331:35.5631:36.1587
815 Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1:35.7021:35.8581:36.1908
918 Sébastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1:36.1101:35.5001:36.2039
1010 Vitaly PetrovRenault1:35.3701:35.149no time10
1114 Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1:36.0921:35.87411
1217 Sergio PérezSauber-Ferrari1:36.0461:36.05312
1316 Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1:36.1471:36.23613
147 Michael SchumacherMercedes1:35.5081:36.45714
1511 Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1:35.9111:36.46515
169 Nick HeidfeldRenault1:35.9101:36.61116
1712 Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1:36.1211:36.95617
182 Mark WebberRed Bull Racing-Renault1:36.46818
1920 Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1:37.89419
2021 Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1:38.31820
2125 Jérôme d'AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1:39.11921
2224 Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1:39.70822
2323 Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1:40.21223
2422 Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1:40.44524
107% time

1:41.941

Notes

  1. Vitaly Petrov stopped on track during Q2. While the lap time he posted managed to get him into Q3, he was not able to take further part in the qualifying session.

Race

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
13 Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes561:36:58.226325
21 Sebastian VettelRed Bull Racing-Renault 56+5.198118
32 Mark WebberRed Bull Racing-Renault56+7.5551815
44 Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes56+10.000212
58 Nico RosbergMercedes56+13.448410
66 Felipe MassaFerrari56+15.84068
75 Fernando AlonsoFerrari56+30.62256
87 Michael SchumacherMercedes56+31.026144
910 Vitaly PetrovRenault56+57.404102
1016 Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari56+1:03.273131
1115 Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes56+1:08.7578
129 Nick HeidfeldRenault56+1:12.73916
1311 Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth56+1:30.18915
1418 Sébastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari56+1:30.6719
1514 Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes55+1 Lap11
1620 Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault55+1 Lap19
1717 Sergio PérezSauber-Ferrari55+1 Lap12
1812 Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth55+1 Lap17
1921 Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault55+1 Lap20
2025 Jérôme d'AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth54+2 Laps21
2124 Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth54+2 Laps22
2223 Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth54+2 Laps23
2322 Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth54+2 Laps24
Ret19 Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari9Wheel7

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
DriverPoints
1 Sebastian Vettel68
12 Lewis Hamilton47
13 Jenson Button38
4 Mark Webber37
5 Fernando Alonso26
Source: [9]
Constructors' Championship standings
ConstructorPoints
1 Red Bull Racing-Renault105
2 McLaren-Mercedes85
3 Ferrari50
4 Renault32
45 Mercedes16
Source:

Notes and References

  1. News: 2011 FORMULA 1 UBS CHINESE GRAND PRIX (Race). f1standings.net. F1Standings. 17 April 2011. 5 April 2021.
  2. Web site: 2011 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix . Formula1.com . . 7 March 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101225092908/http://www.formula1.com/races/in_detail/china_848/circuit_diagram.html . December 25, 2010 .
  3. News: Lewis Hamilton storms to China victory over Red Bulls. BBC Sport. BBC. 17 April 2011. 17 April 2011. Sarah. Holt. https://web.archive.org/web/20120305115424/http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9460612.stm. March 5, 2012. live.
  4. News: Pirelli announce tyre choices for remaining races . Formula1.com . . 7 October 2011 . 2 June 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130929180620/http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2011/10/12604.html . September 29, 2013 .
  5. News: Bridgestone announce tyre compounds for remaining races . Formula1.com . . 7 September 2010 . 2 June 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120419135730/http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/9/11213.html . April 19, 2012 .
  6. News: Holt. Sarah. Sebastian Vettel beats McLaren in Chinese GP qualifying. BBC News. 1 June 2011. 16 April 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110429062720/http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/13102798.stm. 29 April 2011 . live.
  7. News: Weaver. Paul. Lewis Hamilton wins thrilling Chinese grand prix. 1 June 2011. The Guardian. 17 Apr 2011. London.
  8. News: Brett. Oliver. Chinese Grand Prix as it happened. BBC News. 1 June 2011. 17 April 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110527042413/http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9459834.stm. 27 May 2011 . live.
  9. Web site: China 2011 - Championship • STATS F1. www.statsf1.com. 15 March 2019.