Nigeria Content Online

McLaren’s
Lewis Hamilton went from China crisis to champagne celebration on
Sunday with a stirring victory that denied Red Bull’s Formula One world
champion, Sebastian Vettel, a fifth win in a row.

Hamilton, who made
it out of the Shanghai pit lane with only seconds to spare after
frantic work on his car’s engine before the race, hunted down his
German rival remorselessly on better-gripping tyres in the closing laps
to win by 5.1 seconds.

Australian Mark
Webber, finished third for Red Bull after starting 18th while McLaren’s
Jenson Button was fourth following a rare blunder that saw him pit in
front of the Red Bull mechanics.

Vettel now has 68
points after three races while Hamilton moved up to second overall with
47. Red Bull have 105 to McLaren’s 85 and Ferrari’s 50 in the
constructors’ standings.

“With the whole
thing that happened in the pit lane, perhaps I wasn’t even going to be
in the race,” Hamilton told reporters after a thrilling and
strategy-loaded race that left even drivers confused.

“I thought I was
going to be back with Mark,” added the Briton who gave a whoop of
delight to celebrate his and McLaren’s first win since Belgium in
August last year.

The 26-year-old,
triumphant in Shanghai on his way to the title in 2008, was the first
driver to win twice in China since the race made its debut on the
calendar in 2004.

“The car just
wouldn’t start,” he said of the pre-race problems that saw him drive
out of the garage barely 30 seconds before the pit lane closed and
without the rear engine cover installed.

Mechanics carried on their work once he was safely installed in third place on the grid.

Strategic decision

Vettel had won the
first two races of the season, after also finishing first in the last
two of 2010, from pole position and looked the favourite again after
grabbing the top slot.

His team’s decision
to go for a two-stop strategy, rather than Hamilton’s three, proved
crucial with the McLaren man making the most of his fresher tyres to
reel in the Red Bull after his final stop.

“The pace was
there,” said Vettel, who had lost out to both the McLarens at the
start. “It was there all weekend but once we decided to go to two stop
you have to be patient, look after your tyres and when it doesn’t work,
it doesn’t work.

“I saw there were seven laps to go and not much I could do,” he added.

“I don’t see second today as a disappointment, all in all we are happy with second. First was not meant to be.”

Hamilton and
Button, who started on the front row, had both screamed past Vettel at
the start with the older Englishman leading the eventual winner for the
first 13 laps.

The 2009 champion
then blew his lead on his first pit stop with a mistake that would have
embarrassed even a rookie, let alone one of the smoothest of drivers.

With Vettel
following him in, moments after passing Hamilton for second place,
Button stopped in front of the German’s mechanics who hurriedly ushered
him out to make way for their man – who was then first out again.

“I was looking down and when I looked back up I could see I was in the wrong place,” he said.

Webber charge

While the top five
were separated by less than eight seconds after more than a third of
the race, Webber was on a charge of his own.

Robbed of his
chances of winning by a technical problem on Saturday, he ran a
different strategy to his team mate thanks to having three sets of
unused option tyres due to his lack of track time on Saturday.

“I had a few sets
of tyres left over from qualifying so that helped a bit,” he said,
adding jokingly: “Maybe that is the best way to do it all the time, not
even take part in qualifying and just go from there.”

Germany’s Nico
Rosberg also enjoyed a moment in the limelight, leading after
successive rounds of pit stops for Mercedes, but his hopes of a first
career win after five seasons in Formula One faded as his team urged
him to save fuel.

Rosberg finished fifth, ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso in sixth and seventh.

Seven times world champion, Michael Schumacher, crossed the line in
eighth place for Mercedes at the circuit where he had his last podium
finish with Ferrari in 2006.