2013 Chinese Grand Prix

The 2013 Chinese Grand Prix (formally known as the 2013 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 14 April 2013 at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China. The race was the third round of the 2013 season, and marked the tenth running of the Chinese Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship. The race was won by Fernando Alonso.

2013 Chinese Grand Prix
Race 3 of 19 in the 2013 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Layout of the Shanghai International Circuit
Race details
Date	14 April 2013
Official name	2013 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix
Location	Shanghai International Circuit Shanghai, People's Republic of China
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.451 km (3.387 miles)
Distance	56 laps, 305.066 km (189.559 miles)
Weather	Cloudy
Pole position
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time	1:34.484
Fastest lap
Driver	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Time	1:36.808 on lap 53
Podium
First	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
Second	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault
Third	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Lap leaders

Report

Background

Like the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix, tyre supplier Pirelli brought its white-banded medium compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre.

Qualifying

Q1

As in previous qualifying sessions, the Caterham and Marussia cars were eliminated in the first round of qualifying. Sauber's Esteban Gutiérrez and Williams's Valtteri Bottas were also eliminated. The fastest time of 1:35.793 was posted by Lewis Hamilton. All cars were comfortably within the 107% cutoff time of 1:42.498.

Q2

Mark Webber, who had posted the 4th fastest time in Q1, ran out of fuel during his second attempt to post a time. Unable to provide the required 1 litre fuel sample, he was penalised by being forced to start at the back of the grid. As they did with Sebastian Vettel when he ran out of fuel during qualifying for the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the Red Bull team opted to change the gearbox on Webber's car to improve his overtaking ability, thereby obliging him to start from pit lane.

Eliminated from qualifying were Vergne, Maldonado, Webber, Sutil, Pérez and di Resta.

Q3

Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes once again posted the fastest time of the session to take pole position. Lotus Renault's Kimi Räikkönen was second and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was third.

Hülkenberg opted to preserve his tyres and did not post a time for Q3. Vettel also failed to log a time, aborting his attempt after a braking problem. Jenson Button did a token lap to secure the eighth qualifying position.

Race

Esteban Gutiérrez exiting his stranded Sauber C32

Mark Webber losing his wheel on lap 15

Fernando Alonso took his 31st Grand Prix victory

A late surge by Sebastian Vettel was not rewarded with a podium finish

Lewis Hamilton led from the start, ahead of Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa and a slow-starting Kimi Räikkönen. Mark Webber was forced to pit for new tyres at the end of the first lap. Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil lightly collided, with no damage suffered on either cars.

On lap 4, Alonso and Massa both passed Hamilton at exactly the same time on the first corner. Daniel Ricciardo was forced to pit a short time before. Nico Rosberg pitted on lap 5. On this same lap, Esteban Gutiérrez misjudged his braking into the hairpin at the end of the very long back straight, and went straight into the back of Adrian Sutil. Gutiérrez was out straight away, while Sutil was able to make it back to the pits. However, as he came in to try and fix the damage, his exhaust caught fire, and he retired from the race.

On laps 6 and 7, the pit lane was full of chaos, as Alonso, Massa, Räikkönen, Jules Bianchi, Giedo van der Garde, Max Chilton, Romain Grosjean, and Pastor Maldonado were all forced to pit due to heavy tyre degradation. Nico Hülkenberg found himself leading the race afterwards, ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Sergio Pérez, and Paul di Resta.

Eventually on lap 14, Vettel, Hülkenberg, and di Resta pitted. At the same time, Mark Webber hit Jean-Éric Vergne, with both Vergne and Webber being forced to pit. Webber's troubles were not over however, because on the next lap, while driving around the hairpin on the back straight, his right rear wheel came off, and he was forced out. Then moments later, Räikkönen nudged the back of Pérez's McLaren, and damaged his Lotus's front wing. However, it wasn't damaged enough for him to pit, and he was able to continue.

On the 19th lap, Massa and Rosberg came in again to change their tyres, leaving Alonso and Button 1st and 2nd. Two laps later, Räikkönen and Hamilton pitted, but Nico Rosberg's race was over due to problems with his suspension. Alonso, Button, Grosjean, Ricciardo, Maldonado and Pérez pitted on lap 23, with Vettel taking the lead of the race. Alonso then set the fastest lap of the race, and began to reduce Vettel's lead, and Vettel was told on the radio to not resist an attack by Alonso. On lap 28, Alonso took the lead from Vettel. Both Vettel and Hülkenberg pitted on the next lap, for new hard compound tyres. Di Resta stopped 3 laps later, while Räikkönen and Valtteri Bottas pitted on lap 34. They were followed two laps later by Hülkenberg and Massa, and finally Hamilton, Grosjean and Vergne one lap later.

Alonso pitted for the last time on lap 41, while Räikkönen and Hamilton no longer needed to pit. However, Button and Vettel still had one pit stop to go. Button pitted on lap 49, Vettel on lap 51, and also di Resta on lap 53. There was an exciting duel between Hamilton and Vettel for the final podium slot, as Vettel reduced a 10-second gap, to only a few tenths within five laps. Alonso finally crossed the line to score his 31st grand prix victory on his 200th grand prix start, 10 seconds ahead of Räikkönen, while Hamilton managed to hold off Vettel for third place. Jenson Button finished fifth, Massa finished sixth, while Daniel Ricciardo drove an outstanding race to finish seventh, his best ever Formula One result. The final points positions were taken by di Resta, Grosjean and Hülkenberg.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:35.793	1:35.078	1:34.484	1
2	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:37.046	1:35.659	1:34.761	2
3	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:36.253	1:35.148	1:34.788	3
4	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:35.959	1:35.537	1:34.861	4
5	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:35.972	1:35.403	1:34.933	5
6	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:36.929	1:36.065	1:35.364	6
7	19	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:36.993	1:36.258	1:35.998	7
8	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:36.667	1:35.784	2:05.673	8
9	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:36.537	1:35.343	no time	9
10	11	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	1:36.985	1:36.261	no time	10
11	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:37.478	1:36.287		11
12	6	Sergio Pérez	McLaren-Mercedes	1:36.952	1:36.314		12
13	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:37.349	1:36.405		13
14	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:37.281	1:37.139		14
15	18	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:37.508	1:37.199		15
16	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	1:37.769			16
17	12	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:37.990			17
18	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	1:38.780			18
19	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	1:39.537			19
20	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	1:39.614			20
21	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	1:39.660			21
EX	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:36.148	1:36.679		PL1
107% time: 1:42.498
Source:

• ^1 Webber originally qualified 14th but moved to the back of the grid for failing to provide a one-litre fuel sample after qualifying. The Red Bull team opted to change Webber's gearbox to improve his straight line speed and overtaking ability, obliging them to start from pit lane.

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	56	1:36:26.945	3	25
2	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	56	10.168	2	18
3	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	56	12.322	1	15
4	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	56	12.525	9	12
5	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	56	35.285	8	10
6	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56	40.827	5	8
7	19	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	56	42.691	7	6
8	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	56	51.084	11	4
9	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	56	53.423	6	2
10	11	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	56	56.598	10	1
11	6	Sergio Pérez	McLaren-Mercedes	56	1:03.860	12
12	18	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	56	1:12.604	15
13	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	56	1:33.861	16
14	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	56	1:35.453	14
15	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	55	1 Lap	18
16	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	55	1 Lap	20
17	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	55	1 Lap	19
18	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	55	1 Lap	21
Ret	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	21	Suspension	4
Ret	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	15	Wheel	22
Ret	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	5	Collision damage	13
Ret	12	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	4	Collision	17
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos.	Driver	Points
	1	Sebastian Vettel	52
	2	Kimi Räikkönen	49
3	3	Fernando Alonso	43
	4	Lewis Hamilton	40
	5	Felipe Massa	30
Source:

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos.	Constructor	Points
	1	Red Bull-Renault	78
1	2	Ferrari	73
1	3	Lotus-Renault	60
	4	Mercedes	52
2	5	McLaren-Mercedes	14
Source:

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

External links

• Official Site