Alonso back on track after ‘perfect Sunday’
Alonso was flawless in the Chinese Grand Prix, three weeks after crashing out of the Malaysian Grand Prix with a front-wing failure following an opening-lap collision with Sebastian Vettel.
The race at the Shanghai International Circuit was always going to boil down to which car/driver/team combination could execute the ideal strategy given the number of variables on offer at the start.
There was exciting uncertainty as to who would emerge the winner but as the event unfolded and the lead consistently changed hands following an overwhelming number of pit stops, for the average viewer there must have been bewilderment as to what was going on at times.
There were no doubts about Alonso’s performance, however, en route to the 31st victory of his Formula One career, equalling Nigel Mansell’s feat and hauling the Spaniard up to fourth on the all-time winners’ list.
“It was a fantastic race for us from start to end, without big problems with the car — a perfect Sunday,” said double world champion Alonso.
“The team did a perfect job with the set-up of the car for qualifying and the race, with perfect pit-stop times and the way they were executed.
“The victory is a good reward for the team, and well deserved after the disappointment in Malaysia. It feels great. With the two races we have finished this year, with a second place (in Australia) and the victory today, the start of this campaign is looking good. We are very optimistic, but we need to keep going like this in this direction, with good weekends, without any extra risk, and hopefully in Bahrain (next Sunday) we can again score good points.”
Kimi Raikkonen and pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton finished second and third, with Lotus driver Raikkonen hindered by a minor collision with Perez that affected his front wing.
Raikkonen is now three points behind championship leader Vettel, who had to settle for fourth, just 0.2 seconds adrift of Mercedes driver Hamilton. Alonso has closed to within nine points of Vettel, with Hamilton 12 behind the reigning three-times world champion.
