|Red Bull teammates Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber celebrate their 1-2 finish|
Red Bull Racing recorded an historic first grand prix win in Chinese rain on Sunday, Sebastian Vettel leading home teammate Mark Webber for a dominant one-two.
"It's my second win in the wet," said German youngster Vettel, recalling his first win from pole for junior team Toro Rosso at Monza last year. "I don't think I will mind if we have some more rain!"
Vettel, the best F1 driver since Aryton Senna is the new rainmeister in F1 and beat the double-decker diffuser teams without the device. Once the Adrian Newey designed replacement defuser is added, look out then.
“It's unbelievable – I'm so, so happy," said Vettel.
"Ten laps from the end I tried to control the gap between me and the car behind and adapt my pace. I was trying to have everything under control, but it was difficult. At some points I was trying to bring the car home, but that meant I lost focus, so then I just tried to take it corner by corner, not looking too far ahead. On the last two laps I backed off a bit, as I didn't want to risk aquaplaning on the water at the side of the track. And then... well it's just fantastic. Winning my second race, one with Toro Rosso and one with Red Bull, makes me extremely happy and I hope we can continue working in this direction!
A full 45 seconds down the road, Brawn's Jenson Button completed the podium, but he retains his championship lead, 6 points ahead of Rubens Barrichello, who finished behind the sister car in Shanghai.
"A very difficult race today and I am so pleased that we got both cars to the end of 56 laps and scored as many points as possible," said Button.
"The conditions were pretty crazy with rivers of water all over the circuit which changed every time you encountered them. The last turn particularly was like a lake and you just couldn't brake for the corner. I struggled with the car aquaplaning and the tires shuddering as we couldn't get the temperatures high enough to make them work properly. Mark Webber and I had a good fight for a few laps but I just couldn't stay with him. However to finish the race today is an achievement in itself and to be on the podium is fantastic. We couldn't have beaten the Red Bulls and congratulations to Sebastian and Mark on a great result."
|F1's most overrated driver, Lewis Hamilton, spun again and again in the rain in Shanghai|
Behind the four Red Bulls and Brawns came the two McLarens, with Heikki Kovalainen ahead of Lewis Hamilton, after the reigning world champion ran out of talent and spun multiple times at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Hamilton admitted his performance was one of his worst ever drives in the wet. The 24-year-old traditionally thrives in wet conditions but struggled in Shanghai today, coming off the circuit five times on his way to sixth at the checkered flag.
"I love racing in the wet and I would say that was one of my worst wet performances," he said. "I generally have good wet races but this was incredibly tough. I didn't have any downforce on this car and it was a real struggle but I am glad I got some points for the team."
Toro Rosso rookie Sebastien Buemi scored a point, but he had hearts racing on the Red Bull-branded pitwalls at one point, clipping the rear of winner Vettel under safety car conditions.
"I am lucky to have been able to finish," Vettel said in the post-race press conference.
Fernando Alonso qualified second but finished out of the points, after his low-fuel strategy came to naught when he had to pit even before the long eight-lap safety car period ended at the wet start of the race.
|Sebastian Vettel is superior in the wet|
Ferrari again failed to open its 2009 points account. After Australia and Malaysia it was pretty clear that while the Ferrari F60 challenger was no race winner, errors in strategy combined with reliability issues had resulted in the team’s disastrous start to the season.
Today in the Chinese Grand Prix Kimi Raikkonen ran as high as fifth before taking his one and only pitstop. The strategy would prove wrong as the Finn took the checkered flag in tenth position having been unable to regain so much lost ground. Felipe Massa meanwhile pulled his F60 to a halt early in the race with an electrical problem.
Jarno Trulli also had to retire, after Robert Kubica smashed into the rear of his Toyota.
Adrian Sutil, meanwhile, almost collected debut points for Force India, until he spun and had a huge crash with just five laps to go.
||6 Laps, Accident|