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Alonso Takes 31st Career Win In China

Following a horrible race three weeks ago, Fernando Alonso turned things
around as the Spaniard took the lead on lap two Sunday at the Chinese Grand
Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit, and went on to give his Ferrari
team their first victory of the season ahead
of over Kimi Raikkonen by 10.1 seconds. Lewis Hamilton just held off Sebastian
Vettel to take third.

For Alonso, it was his 31st career win
and his first victory in 12 races. Something that was well worth earning.

“It
couldn’t have gone better than this today!” Alonso enthusiastically stated. “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.”

A the beginning of the race, Hamilton got off to a
good start as did the rest of the field, but Alonso and his Ferrari teammate,
Felipe Massa, managed to get off the starting line faster and by lap two, both
passed the Mercedes driver after Hamilton began to wear out his tires too
quickly.

Adrian Sutil on the fifth lap was struck by Sauber’s
Estaban Gutierrez at the end of the back straight, which resulted in the
Mexican leaving the race as well as the German, who brought in his Force India
entry back to the garage but with the back wing nearly coming off, Sutil’s rear
right side began to engulf itself into flames as he encountered a hydraulic issue
and retired one lap later. Mark Webber at this time after starting the race
from the back of the grid, worked up to Jean Eric Vergne and began to pass the
Frenchman but was himself blocked, and accidently struck the Toro Rosso driver and
spun him around. Webber limped into the pits for a new tire, but when the
Australian returned to the race, the right rear tire simply came off, and flew
onto the track. Webber, now with three wheels, pulled over and retired.

By the 28th lap, Alonso after a couple of
pit stops, returned into the lead and kept a gap of 3.8 seconds over Vettel.
However, when the German pitted, Alonso suddenly found himself in a gap of 12.3 seconds over Hamilton, who also pitted, and because of this stop, Alonso increased
his lead of 19 seconds , pitting one final time before passing Vettel once
again with 13 laps to go to keep his lead for good.

Vettel with a few laps to go, pitted his car to go
onto the softs which had not used yet, and came out in fourth, just in back of
Raikkonen and Hamilton, but try as he might , the defending world champion
failed to catch either driver, and had to settle for fourth place, but kept his
lead in the formula one world championship.

Jenson Button finished in fifth, while Massa was
sixth. Daniel Riccardo took his best finish of his career in seventh, while
Paul Di Resta was eighth. Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg took the last two
point finishes.

Alonso felt after the race that a lot of things went
his way that gave him the victory.

“Maybe we were owed some good luck. 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. With no one dominating the Championship, it makes it extremely
interesting, even if we are aware 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”.

Alonso
will not have to go much further as he and the F1 grid will get back in their race cars
to contest the Grand Prix of Bahrain, which takes place on April 21st.

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