Chinese GP: Ferrari is back

Or maybe they were never gone. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso impressive run to their first victory on the 2013 F1 World Championship showed the potential il cavalino rampante holds in its 2013 machinery.

Starting from third and fifth, seconds after the lights went off both Ferraris cruised past Kimi Raikkonen, who was struggling for traction off the line. Lewis Hamilton on the Mercedes W04 set the pace in the first laps, but it was clear the two italian cars were in great shape to dominate the race.

Further down the order, Mark Webber completed a terrible weekend by running into J.E. Vergne´s Toro Rosso, destroying his front wing. On top of that, back in the pits his mechanics failed to secure his rear left wheel, which came off at the exit of Turn 14 and missing out on Vettel´s car by a handful of inches.

As the race progressed it became clear pitstop strategies were going to dominate the final result of the race. With the qualifying front runners on a three stop strategy with a first stint on the option tyre, as opposed to Vettel and Hulkenberg, who were set to use the option towards the end of their races.

Half way though the race it became clear Alonso’s pace was unreachable, nor by Hamilton neither by Raikkonen. The first was struggling to keep the rubber on his tyres, while the second tangled with Sergio Perez and produced damage to his front wing and nose. Kimi’s engineers decided not to stop for a new front wing, since the performance lost by running with the damaged front wing did not make for the time they would have lost in changing the wing.

The Finn opted to stop for the last time four laps before Hamilton, which allowed him to pass the Brit. But the last step of the podium was never a done deal for Hamilton. Vettel pitted to put on the option tyre with five laps to go, emerging in fourth place. The german was shaving some cracking three seconds per lap each time around, but he failed to attack the Mercedes’ driver after he run wide at one of the final corners while trying to lap one of the Caterhams. On the finish line it was Alonso, followed by Raikkonen and Hamilton, with Vettel missing out on the podium by just two tenths of a second.

We now head to Bahrein with Vettel (52pts) ahead of Raikkonen (49pts) and Alonso (43pts). In the Constructor’s Championship its Red Bull (78pts), Ferrari (73pts) and Lotus (60pts).