Fernando Alonso has spoken out over Ferrari’s pace in China, underlining the fact that the Maranello team is currently far slower than it showed in Australia or Malaysia. The Spaniard, who pulled off a remarkable victory at Sepang three weeks ago, this time finished only ninth and duly lost his championship lead.
“This is a more realistic example for us,” the Oviedo man, who won in Shanghai for Renault in 2005, told reporters in the paddock. “We would be quicker without traffic, though…we hardly had a clean lap today. I do believe that, without that issue, I would have finished ahead of Grosjean and the Williams drivers.”
A particularly costly moment came when Alonso ran wide at Turn 7, attempting to pass Bruno Senna around the outside on Lap 43. He is now bracing himself for an even worse outing in Bahrain next weekend.
“In theory, that could be the worse for us,” he mused. “We have problems with top speed and traction – and that is what Bahrain is all about, so I imagine that weekend could be even more complicated than the other ones…”
He went on to add that he expects a lap time improvement of fourth tenths of a second when significant updates arrive for Barcelona. Heading to Bahrain, he is placed third in the championship and eight points behind new leader Lewis Hamilton. Incidentally, second Ferrari driver Felipe Massa is now the only 2012 competitor other than those of the three newest teams to have failed to score.
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:36:26.929 |
| 2. | J. Button | McLaren | +20.626 |
| 3. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | +26.012 |
| 4. | M. Webber | Red Bull | +27.924 |
| 5. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | +30.483 |
| 6. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | +31.491 |
| 7. | B. Senna | Williams | +34.597 |
| 8. | P. Maldonado | Williams | +35.643 |
| 9. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | +37.256 |
| 10. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | +38.720 |
| Full results | |||
| Fernando Alonso | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Fernando Alonso photos | |||
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