The cards fall for Fernando Alonso! From F1-Live.com
The first ever Formula One night race saw Fernando Alonso take a stunning victory from 15th position on the grid on a day when a safety car and pit errors turned the tables in favour of the former champion and the Renault team.
Ironically, the fuel pressure failure on Alonso’s R28 in qualifying yesterday - combined with the antics of team-mate Nelson Piquet, forced a risky strategy and a timely safety car respectively that gave the former champion the chance he grasped to claim his 20th Grand Prix win.
The 61-lap race saw Felipe Massa dominate the opening laps of the race, pulling away from championship rival Lewis Hamilton with some ease to enjoy a comfortable four second advantage. That advantage was swiftly turned into a massive deficit after Nelson Piquet planted his Renault firmly in the wall and brought out the first safety car period of the race.
While the unfortunate Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg were forced to pit whilst the safety car was on track and the pit lane closed, Massa, Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and the other front runner were able to wait for the pits to open before they all stopped together for that critical first stop.
Not for the first time this year there was a big error from the Ferrari team. Massa received the signal to leave the pit, only to find the fuel hose still attached, crew in the way and the ever unfortunate Adrian Sutil motoring serenely down the pit lane. Massa came to a halt at the end of the pit lane having narrowly avoided the Force India and waited on the team to come and collect the fuel hose before he could continue.
That put Massa to the back of the field and the subsequent drive through penalty for a dangerous release (remarkably similar to Valencia where he received a fine only) effectively ended his race. The Brazilian would take the chequered flag in 13th position and lose ground in the title race.
Alonso meanwhile had opted to take the soft tyre for an aggressive first stint on low fuel and had pitted ahead of the safety car. This vaulted him up to fourth position on track behind two drivers who had yet to pit at all and Rosberg who was soon to take a stop and go penalty for pitting while the pits were closed.
The race played out and Alonso duly took the lead, controlled the pace and took the chequered flag ahead of Rosberg who despite the penalty, finished just three seconds behind the race winner. Rosberg was perhaps fortunate that he was able to pull a large advantage at the restart of the race, thus nullifying to a large extent his drive through penalty.
FINAL RESULTS:
1) Fernando Alonso - Renault
2) Nico Rosberg - Williams - Toyota
3) Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - Mercedes
4) Timo Glock - Toyota
5) Sebastien Vettel - Scuderia Toro Rosso - Ferrari
6) Nick Heidfeld - BMW
7) David Coulthard - Red Bull - Renault
8) Kaz Nakajima - Williams - Toyota
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP:
1) Lewis Hamilton - 84
2) Felipe Massa - 77
3) Robert Kubica - 64
CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP:
1) McLaren - 135
2) Ferrari - 134
3) BMW - 120
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