Alonso victorious for Ferrari in China

Alonso Ferrari China winner 2013

Fernando Alonso scored his 31st victory in Formula 1 with a gritty drive in the Chinese Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver made some great passes on his rivals and thanks to the tactics on starting on the soft compound tyre, he made this plan worked out perfectly to win in Shanghai.

Kimi Raikkonen recovered from a poor getaway at the start to finish in second position for Lotus while pole sitter Lewis Hamilton had to settle for third.

Both drivers used the same tyre strategy as the race winner to fill the podium, while championship leader Sebastian Vettel was giving chase throughout the race following his low grid position.

Vettel’s tactics on running the medium set could only give him fourth position and the Red Bull driver was right behind the Mercedes in a thrilling finish.

The race unfolded as two parallel contests between those who started on softs, briefly burst clear and then pitted early and dropped into traffic, and those who started on mediums, emerged up front, but would face soft tyre degradation later.

Alonso quickly thrust himself to the front of the first group. A slow start from Raikkonen meant the Ferraris were into second and third by Turn 1, and both Alonso and Felipe Massa overtook Hamilton on lap five as the Mercedes’ soft tyres faded quicker.

Massa stayed out one lap longer than most on soft and subsequently faded away from the lead battle, while Alonso’s speed at hacking through traffic on alternative strategies once he was on mediums gave him an advantage over everyone else on the same strategy.

Vettel left his softs until the final five laps.

But by then, Alonso’s strategy was the correct one. The Ferrari’s shorter stints meant Alonso caught Vettel on track on lap 42 on fresher tyres at a time when both had one more pitstop to go.

Alonso swiftly passed the Red Bull and cruised away, knowing Vettel would still have to take on softs.

While the Ferrari was out of reach, Vettel still had a chance to attack Raikkonen’s Lotus and Hamilton’s Mercedes, which had been battling all race.

The defending champion caught his two rivals at a rate of three seconds per lap after his late pitstop and started the final lap with Hamilton in sight.

The Mercedes hung on by just 0.2 seconds, with Raikkonen staying just far enough ahead to claim second. The Lotus was sporting a dramatic tear in its nose section after an early brush with the defensive Sergio Perez’s McLaren.

Jenson Button pulled off a two-stop strategy in the other McLaren, allowing him to lead for a while and finish in fifth place ahead of Massa.

Daniel Ricciardo converted his impressive qualifying result into seventh for Toro Rosso, despite an early front wing change.

Paul di Resta and Romain Grosjean were eighth and ninth for Force India and Lotus respectively.

Nico Hulkenberg played a major role in the early stages. Running the same strategy as Vettel, he got ahead of the Red Bull early on and led as the strategies unfolded.

A slow pitstop meant he lost out to Vettel, and Sauber’s strategy of a very short middle stint on softs did not work out, leaving him tenth.

Mark Webber’s troubled weekend got even worse in the race. Clearing the soft tyres on the opening lap and instantly taking mediums gave him a shot at getting up with the leaders, but he smashed his front wing in a tangle with Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso then retired when his right rear wheel fell off after a subsequent pitstop for repairs.

Nico Rosberg was troubled by an apparent suspension problem from the outset and retired his Mercedes soon after his second pitstop.

Esteban Gutierrez crashed out after ploughing into the back of Adrian Sutil. The Force India driver had earlier clashed with his team-mate di Resta.

The stewards were investigating several drivers for possible use of DRS under yellow flags – notably Vettel, Webber, Raikkonen, Bottas, Ricciardo and Chilton.

And yet in the end, no action was taken. However, both Mark Webber and Esteban Gutierrez received grid drops in the next race at Bahrain for crashing into cars.

So a fantastic race for Ferrari and Fernando Alonso. He matches Nigel Mansell’s record of 31 wins in the sport. It was his 200th race start too.

After three rounds, Vettel still leads the title chase with 52 points, from Raikkonen on 49, Alonso on 43, Hamilton on 40, Massa on 30 and Webber on 26. In the constructors’ stakes, Red Bull have 78, Ferrari 73, Lotus 60, Mercedes 52, and McLaren and Force India 14.

Bahrain plays hosts to round four of an exciting Formula 1 season next weekend. With three different winners in the first three races, will we see a new winner? Just like the tyre strategy and action on track, it’s going to be unpredictable.

Race results from Shanghai International Circuit:

1.  Alonso         Ferrari                    1h36:26.945
2.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault              +10.168s
3.  Hamilton       Mercedes                   +12.322s
4.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault           +12.525s
5.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes           +35.285s
6.  Massa          Ferrari                    +40.827s
7.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +42.691s
8.  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes       +51.084s
9.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault              +53.423s
10.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari             +56.598s
11.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes           +1m03.860s
12.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1m12.604s
13.  Bottas      Williams-Renault           +1m33.861s
14.  Maldonado         Williams-Renault           +1m35.453s
15.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
16.  Pic            Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
17.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
18.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault           +1 lap

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1m36.808s

Not classified/retirements:
Rosberg        Mercedes                     22 laps
Webber         Red Bull-Renault             16 laps
Sutil          Force India-Mercedes         6 laps
Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari               5 laps

World Championship standings, round 3:                

Drivers:             
1.  Vettel         52
2.  Raikkonen      49
3.  Alonso         43
4.  Hamilton       40
5.  Massa          30
6.  Webber         26
7.  Button         12
8.  Rosberg        12
9.  Grosjean       11
10.  Di Resta        8
11.  Ricciardo       6
12.  Sutil           6
13.  Hulkenberg      5
14.  Perez           2
15.  Vergne          1

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault           78
2.  Ferrari                    73
3.  Lotus-Renault              60
4.  Mercedes                   52
5.  Force India-Mercedes       14
6.  McLaren-Mercedes           14
7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          7
8.  Sauber-Ferrari              5

Next race: Bahrain Grand Prix, Bahrain International Circuit. April 19-21.

14 thoughts to “Alonso victorious for Ferrari in China”

  1. After scoring his first win of the season Fernando Alonso remains calm over Ferrari prospects. Autosport.com has the story.

    Fernando Alonso believes it is too early to assume Ferrari will be fighting for victory in every race despite a commanding win in the Chinese Grand Prix.

    The Spaniard won the Shanghai race – his first win since last year’s German Grand Prix – after beating front-row starters Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.

    Alonso finished the race over 10 seconds ahead of Raikkonen in one of Ferrari’s strongest performances of recent seasons.

    Despite controlling the race from the front, Alonso reckons the pecking order will fluctuate from one track to another and insists it is still impossible to see a clear candidate for the title.

    “I think it is a little bit too early to say, we need to wait for after summer break to see a clear contender,” said Alonso.

    “Hopefully we are in that group after the summer. Hopefully Felipe [Massa] can be in that group as well and that will mean the car is going well.

    “I think at the moment Lotus and Red Bull and Mercedes they are in the same position as us.

    “I don’t see anyone having a clear advantage. Maybe Red Bull was very dominant in Australia and in the race they were suffering a little bit deg but very fast, in Malaysia a bit more in the group and here similar to others, so let’s wait and see on the updates every car brings and we’ll see how the luck happens.”

    The two-time champion had retired from the Malaysian Grand Prix three weeks ago after a collision on the opening lap, but Sunday’s victory has moved him back to third place in the standings, nine points behind leader Sebastian Vettel.

    Alonso is hopeful he will be able to keep his momentum going in the Bahrain Grand Prix next week.

    “Obviously it’s a long time since the last victory here, eight years, and it definitely was nearly a perfect result for us,” he said.

    “The team did a perfect job with the set-up of the car. We had perfect pitstop times and pitstop execution so at the end of the race the victory is a good reward for all the team and well deserved after the disappointment in Malaysia.

    “We need to keep going in this direction with no extra risk and hopefully in Bahrain get another podium again.”

  2. Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen says Sergio Perez pushed him off the track in the Chinese Grand Prix. The Iceman recovered from this and his poor start to take second place at the flag. Autosport.com has the news story.

    Kimi Raikkonen said Sergio Perez pushed him off the track in their battle early in the Chinese Grand Prix.

    Eventual second place finisher Raikkonen’s Lotus came up behind Perez’s two-stopping McLaren after making his first of three pitstops.

    Raikkonen lined Perez up to the outside through Turn 5 with a view to passing at Turn 6, but the Mexican stayed on the racing line and moved across directly in front of the Finn.

    The Lotus slid onto the grass and also damaged its nose section on the back of the McLaren.

    “I got a better run out of corner three and thought he would leave me enough space but he pushed me off the circuit,” Raikkonen said.

    “I tried to avoid him but then was on the grass and kerb. The kerb saved me as I had grip. I couldn’t slow down and hit him in the rear.

    “I don’t know if he could see me or how it happened, but there was no way for me to avoid it anymore as I was there next to him and ran out of road.”

    Raikkonen continued to the finish with the damaged nose – a decision he was dubious about.

    “I wanted to change it,” he admitted. “I think they looked at the wing at the first pitstop and probably thought it would take too long.

    “I don’t know. The car was still OK.”

    He said the effect of the damage was minimal.

    “I was surprised there was not much damage as I hit him quite hard,” said Raikkonen.

    “I was also a bit surprised that we didn’t have more problems, just a bit too much understeer and destroying front tyres because of that.”

  3. Despite starting on pole position, Lewis Hamilton ended the Chinese Grand Prix in third place and yet he added the Mercedes pace will still need improving in order to beat their rivals. Autosport.com has the details.

    Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes’ fall from pole position to third place in the Chinese Grand Prix proves that the team still has work to do to get on the absolute pace.

    Hamilton lost the lead to eventual winner Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari on the fifth lap, and then spent the afternoon in a battle with Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus, which he ultimately narrowly lost.

    “I am not really sure where we are losing out,” Hamilton admitted.

    “Today just the overall pace was not there and there are definitely a couple of areas we can focus on on the car.

    “We have some updates and need to keep improving. We have to work out where we are losing the time, try and zone in on that and improve that.”

    But he underlined that he was still satisfied to get on the podium for a second straight race, even if Alonso and Raikkonen were quicker.

    “I am quite happy with third, though I would have loved to win,” said Hamilton.

    “They were a little bit too fast for us during the race. I was able to apply a little bit of pressure to Kimi but not overtake.”

    Hamilton’s team-mate Nico Rosberg, who won in China a year ago, retired early with a suspected suspension issue.

    “I had a lot of understeer, then after the pitstop it got worse and my front wheel started bouncing on the inside of the corners,” Rosberg said.

    “I came in to check the car but it stayed like that so I retired.”

  4. Championship leader Sebastian Vettel defends the team’s decision on tyre strategy in the Chinese Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver started on the medium compared to the race winner, who ran the softs on the opening stint. Autosport.com has the news story.

    Sebastian Vettel does not think Red Bull’s Chinese Grand Prix strategy was wrong, despite failing to finish on the podium.

    Red Bull chose not to get involved in the pole fight, declining to set a Q3 time and instead starting Vettel on medium tyres from ninth on the grid.

    Although fourth-placed Vettel was the highest finisher among the drivers using that tactic, he was beaten by Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton.

    All three had battled for pole as normal and then started on softs.

    Vettel believes the strategy was justified, and that his problems were losing time behind Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber in the first stint, and Alonso being simply quicker this weekend.

    “Our strategy seemed to work today,” the champion insisted.

    “We knew it was crucial to get clear laps at the start, but we did not.

    “I was behind Nico and if you follow another car too much it’s bad for the tyres. It was hard to find the right compromise.”

    Asked if he believed victory was possible, Vettel replied: “I don’t think so, I think Fernando was too quick here.

    “If you look at the strategy, they started in clean air, they finished in clean air. I didn’t.

    “I’m not blaming anyone, it’s just how it is when you start further back.

    “We have to be fair, Fernando was too quick. But if you look at practice, he wasn’t too far out of reach.

    “With more clean laps at the beginning, we could have had a chance.”

    Vettel did not pit for softs until the final five laps. He fell from second to fourth, but was able to catch Raikkonen and Hamilton at a ferocious rate on his new tyres, missing the podium by only 0.2 seconds.

    “The team obviously told me that there was quite a big gap, but there was also a gap to the car behind so why not [go for it]?” said Vettel.

    “When I came onto the long straight for the first time and saw Lewis at the hairpin, I thought I was too far away, but we had more speed on the tyres.

    “It’s a little disappointing to lose out at the end. A few more corners and we could’ve tried something.”

  5. This was a weekend to forget for Mark Webber. Had to start from the back of the grid due to a lack of fuel in qualifying. Hit the sister car of Jean-Eric Vergne and was forced to retire with three wheels left on his Red Bull. Autosport.com has the details.

    Mark Webber admitted he was sure Jean-Eric Vergne was letting him through when they tangled on lap 16 of the Chinese Grand Prix.

    The Red Bull came up behind the Toro Rosso at Turn 6 as Webber tried to recover from his qualifying penalty.

    The Australian made a late move down the inside and made contact with Vergne, spinning the Toro Rosso and breaking his own front wing.

    “I was regrouping and coming through the field and got to Jean-Eric,” said Webber.

    “I was coming from a reasonable distance back but he knew I was there.

    “He was really, really wide and looking like he opened the corner and was giving me the line.

    “But we got to the apex and he took it.

    “It’s disappointing. He was entitled to do that, but if he’d just gone around the outside we would’ve both survived.”

    Webber does not think the incident would have ruined his race, but he retired soon afterwards when his car shed a wheel following his subsequent pitstop.

    “[The collision] wasn’t the end of the world as we were only a couple of laps off stopping for tyres anyway,” said Webber.

    “The guys thought the wheel was done, but it came off on the out-lap.”

  6. Paul di Resta believes his early clash with Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil cost him the chance to finish much higher than eighth in the Chinese Grand Prix.

    The duo came together on the exit of the hairpin on lap one, when di Resta got to the outside of Sutil as the German tried to pass Nico Hulkenberg.

    Sutil drifted wide and banged wheels with di Resta, sending the Scot bouncing over the grass.

    Di Resta said his subsequent “remarkable” pace proved that the collision had been costly.

    “Unfortunately the contact with Adrian at the hairpin set us back three or four places,” said di Resta.

    “From there I just couldn’t get unleashed. I had to settle in with everyone else.

    “But that third stint was awesome. We were just able to pick our way up and caught a lot of seconds on the cars in front. That’s what eventually got us the eighth place. It was quite a remarkable recovery.

    “I think we can be confident that we could have done a very good job if everything had gone to plan.”

    Sutil felt di Resta had put himself in a risky place when they tangled.

    “There’s not much to say,” said the German. “I didn’t really see anything, just felt a hit on my rear tyre and looked in the mirror and saw Paul there.

    “I don’t know what he was trying.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  7. As if it cannot get any worse for Mark Webber, the race stewards have handed out the Australian with a three-place grid penalty for next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Autosport.com has the details.

    Mark Webber will lose three places on the grid of the Bahrain Grand Prix after stewards blamed him for his clash with Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne in China.

    Webber made contact with Vergne when trying to pass the Frenchman for 12th position on lap 16 of the race. He confirmed his penalty to reporters as he left the stewards’ office.

    The Australian said afterwards he was sure Vergne had left him room to pass, although the Toro Rosso driver denied knowing Webber was there.

    “I think Mark could not have got through from where he tried and I’m not even sure if he was trying to pass me. Certainly I didn’t even know he was there,” said Vergne.

    “Unfortunately, the impact put me into a spin and the incident damaged my floor. From then I lost a lot of downforce.”

    Webber had already endured a nightmare weekend.

    The Australian had started the race from the pits after he had been excluded from qualifying for not having enough fuel in his car for scrutineering checks.

    The Red Bull driver retired from the race after losing the rear left wheel following a pitstop.

  8. Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne was not impressed by Mark Webber’s clumsy overtaking move during the race at the Shanghai International Circuit. The two came together with Webber receiving a three-place grid penalty in the next race. Autosport.com has the news story.

    Jean-Eric Vergne admits that he was surprised by Mark Webber’s unsuccessful attempt to pass him during the Chinese Grand Prix.

    The Australian dived up the inside of Vergne at Turn 6 to try to take 12th place on the 16th lap and hit the right-rear of the Toro Rosso with his front-left wheel.

    After the race, the stewards deemed Webber responsible for the accident and hit him with a three-place grid penalty for next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

    “I don’t know what he tried to do, it’s a shame,” Vergne told AUTOSPORT.

    “I did not even close the door, I just took my corner normally and then suddenly, in the middle of the corner, I felt a hit.”

    Vergne added that there was no instruction from the team to let Webber past.

    Webber said after the race that Vergne knew he was there and believed the Frenchman would let him through.

    “Absolutely not,” said Vergne when asked if he was under instruction to let Webber past at that point.

    “I was doing my race, he was doing his.

    “He was much quicker and would have passed me on the next straight anyway.”

    Vergne went on to finish 12th, admitting that “the floor was completely destroyed” by the collision.

  9. Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez also received a penalty. A five-place grid drop for crashing into Adrian Sutil. Autosport.com has the story.

    Esteban Gutierrez has been handed a five-place grid penalty for Bahrain after his crash during the Chinese Grand Prix.

    The Mexican Sauber driver outbraked himself five laps into the race and crashed into the back of Adrian Sutil’s Force India.

    Rookie Gutierrez retired on the spot with a heavily damaged car, while Sutil managed to return to the pits but was also forced to retire due to the damage suffered.

    “As I turned into the corner, I felt a hit from the rear and that was it. I think Gutierrez just braked late for the corner,” said Sutil.

    Race stewards gave the Sauber driver a penalty for causing the accident, and he will drop five places on the grid next week in Bahrain.

    Gutierrez fully accepted that it was his mistake.

    “I had Checo [Perez] fighting behind me, and I approached the corner too fast,” he said.

    “I was braking at the same place where I usually brake, however, I didn’t anticipate the loss of downforce and the amount of speed I had.

    “I tried my best to stop, but didn’t succeed. It was definitely my fault, and I apologise to Adrian and to his team.”

  10. Jenson Button says that McLaren’s two-stop strategy, and not an upturn in pace, was to credit for his fifth place in the Chinese Grand Prix.

    McLaren had come into China confident that it had pinpointed the flaws on its MP4-28 and with an upgrade package the team said on Friday was showing encouraging potential.

    As Button predicted on Saturday however, it was the team’s tactics which ultimately elevated him into the top five for the first time this season.

    “We’re not quick enough to do the same strategy as others. [Without two-stopping] we wouldn’t have finished fifth,” Button said.

    “A lot of the time we are out front and leading, but you can’t forget that you are doing fewer pitstops and quicker cars will be overtaking you.

    “It all came good at the end, and with the pace we did have I think we should be very happy with it.

    “I think we should take a lot of positives from here, but also know we have a lot of work to do to challenge at the front.”

    Button admitted it had been difficult to deliberately cede ground to other drivers, but said the delicate balance of the two-stop tactic dictated his race behaviour.

    “It was quite a strange race: there was no point fighting because that was the quickest way to the end,” he said.

    “We had to go long, which was very tricky with so many people jumping all over each other.

    “When I had prime runners fighting to get past it was like ‘is it worth it?’ You don’t want to look like you’re not fighting but for us the best thing to do was to have clean air and not destroy the tyres.

    “If I locked up that was the strategy done. It was an unusual way to go racing – it was a little bit like being at Le Mans in an LMP2 car and with LMP1s coming up behind you – but it worked for us.

    “It’s not the most exciting way to go racing but we got 10 points because we did that.

    “We beat a Ferrari, a Lotus – we should be happy with that.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  11. Eight drivers were initially investigated after activating the DRS under yellow flags. Hours after the race, all escaped with no penalties. Autosport.com has the details.

    All the drivers involved in investigations into DRS use under yellow flag conditions in the Chinese Grand Prix have escaped penalties.

    Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, Lotus duo Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo, Marussia’s Max Chilton, and McLaren driver Jenson Button were all under scrutiny over suspicions that they may had used the DRS while the yellow flags were on track.

    As was the case in the first two races of the season, the FIA’s telemetry system had to be turned off, meaning among other things that drivers had no automatic disabling of the DRS when it was prohibited.

    Despite the amount of drivers under investigation, the FIA confirmed it did not have to issue any penalties.

    Stewards said there were mitigating circumstances, stating there had been a one-minute delay between the displaying of yellow flags until the notification that DRS had been de-activated.

    Furthermore, the stewards noted a ‘degree of confusion’ caused by another race where the FIA had had to disable its electronic marshalling system because of ongoing problems with its new supplier.

    A third issue was that a green light was being displayed on the main straight, which drivers believed meant that they could use DRS.

  12. The Red Bull team has been fined 5000 euros for the unsafe release of Mark Webber during the Chinese Grand Prix.

    Australian Webber retired from the race after losing his left rear wheel following a pitstop.

    Although he was asked on the radio to drive slowly back to the pits, Webber’s wheel got detached before he could make it.

    As a result of the incident, race stewards fined the team for not having attached the wheel properly during the stop.

    Team boss Christian Horner said he was still unsure about the cause of the problem.

    “Until we get the car back it is difficult to make any assumptions,” he said. “Obviously just prior to that he had an incident with Jean-Eric [Vergne] and damaged the front wing, and we had a puncture on the left front.

    “So all four wheels were changed and the nose was changed, and the report from the gunman who obviously had extra time because it was not a hasty time due to nose change was that certainly the right rear was secure and done up tightly.”

    Webber had a dismal weekend in China, having had to start the race from the pits after he was excluded from qualifying for not having enough fuel in the car.

    “It has been a tricky weekend – and an incident in the race did not help that either,” added Horner. “Until we get the components back and understand what has happened there, whether it is the result of the contact we don’t know.

    “It is unlikely I would have thought but until we have all the information it is difficult to draw any conclusions.”

    Webber was also given a five-place grid penalty for the Bahrain GP for his collision with Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne.

    Source: Autosport.com

  13. With one Ferrari taking the victory in China, the other red car struggle with a lack of pace. Felipe Massa was left feeling puzzled why he was slow… Autosport.com has the details.

    Felipe Massa admits he does not fully understand his loss of pace mid-way through the Chinese Grand Prix.

    The Brazilian had shadowed team-mate Fernando Alonso, who went on to claim an assured victory, in the early, soft-rubber stages of the race.

    Once the field had switched onto mediums however Massa faded from the lead battle, eventually coming home sixth behind the two-stopping McLaren of Jenson Button.

    Massa said he is still struggling for answers to explain his eventual 40-second deficit to Alonso.

    “It’s difficult to understand exactly what happened today, because the start went very well,” Massa said.

    “I was immediately quick and the car was working perfectly.

    “At the first stop, I fitted the medium tyres and after a few laps I began to suffer with graining on the front.

    “That meant I lost ground to other cars and it was probably down to a problem linked to the track conditions and my driving style.

    “All weekend, I haven’t felt comfortable with these tyres and in the race, any attempts I made to save them was useless.”

    Massa believes he would have been in the podium hunt were it not for his pace on the medium tyres.

    “But for this problem, I would certainly have been in the fight for the podium,” he added.

    “But I am still confident because, all the same, I was able to bring home a good points haul which is important in a season that has only just begun.”

  14. Red Bull boss Christian Horner has furiously dismissed suggestions of a conspiracy against Mark Webber on the back of a nightmare weekend at Shanghai for the Australian.

    Webber had come in to the Chinese Grand Prix eager to get a good result on the back of the troubles in Malaysia, when Sebastian Vettel ignored team orders and beat him.

    But Webber’s weekend was beset by drama, as a lack of fuel in his car during qualifying left him at the back of the grid for the race, and his Sunday afternoon ended after a pit stop problem resulted in a wheel falling off.

    Speaking to reporters after the race, Horner was angered that there was even a suggestion that Red Bull was moving to try and hamper Webber’s efforts.

    “That is complete rubbish,” he said. “Forget conspiracy. It is all about trying to get two cars to finish as high as we can.

    “Anybody that thinks there is a conspiracy here against one, or either, driver doesn’t know what they are looking at.”

    When it was put to him that Webber himself had not gone as far as ruling out a conspiracy, Horner said: “Mark knows exactly what happened. That is it. There is no conspiracy.”

    Red Bull was still awaiting a full analysis of Webber’s car on Sunday night in China to work out why the wheel had fallen off, while the faulty fuel bowser that prevented enough fuel going in the car for qualifying will be looked at back at the team’s factory.

    “It will be stripped back down at Milton Keynes and investigated there,” explained Horner.

    Autosport says: F1 group editor Jonathan Noble

    Although the cynics may suggest that Red Bull would obviously deny a conspiracy – even if there was one – fans should really forget any thoughts that Webber’s Chinese GP nightmares were a deliberate ploy to hobble the Australian.

    It makes no sense at all for an outfit to invest nearly £200 million per year on its two car operation and then throw half of its efforts away by deliberately stopping one of its drivers.

    To suggest that the team would purposely not put enough fuel in Webber’s car for him to complete qualifying is ridiculous, as there is no benefit to the team’s constructors’ championship ambitions by having one of its men at the back of the grid.

    In fact, the conspiracy theories would actually have more credibility if the team had done the opposite and put too much fuel in Webber’s car – thereby deliberately adding extra weight to the car which would have slowed him down and left him behind team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

    Webber can look back at how straight the team played his battle with Vettel in Malaysia a few weeks ago – when a super swift final pit stop ensured he kept a slim lead over his team-mate before the ‘Multi 21’ controversy – for proof that the team does all it can to treat both men equally.

    It is clear that Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko is politically fully in the Vettel camp, but when it comes to on track stuff, do not imagine for one second that the stance extends as far as derailing a driver by not giving him enough fuel or only three wheels.

    Source: Autosport.com

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