Ferrari leave Shanghai having lost the lead in both the drivers' and constructors' standings with Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa finishing fourth and ninth respectively.
Alonso made a critical error at the very start of the race as he jumped the start and flew into the lead from third position on the grid. The Spaniard admits it was his mistake but from that point he put in a charge to regain the lost ground following the inevitable drive-through penalty.
A key moment in Alonso's recovery drive through the field was his pass on team-mate Felipe Massa entering the pits as the rain started to fall. The Brazilian racer then had to wait patiently as Alonso's F10 received service before could continue.
Alonso continued push hard, but was unable to pass third-placed Nico Rosberg in the closing stages and was forced to settle for position.
“In a race like this, anything can happen," Alonso began. "We did five pit stops to change tyres, which is definitely unusual. All in all, I think we took the right decisions at the right time. In a race like this you only understand at the end what would have been the best thing to do, as neither on the pit wall nor in the car do we have a crystal ball!
"I made a serious mistake at the start as my reflexes let me down and I left early," he continued. "It’s never happened to me before and I am very disappointed with myself. Luckily, despite the penalty, I managed to finish fourth.
"The passing move on Felipe? If he was not my team-mate, there wouldn’t be so much talk about it and for me it was a normal move and it definitely won’t compromise our relationship," he said. "We have a great potential and we must hope we get some normal races like the one in Bahrain.
"The start of the championship has gone well: we have shown we are competitive on all the tracks and we have what it takes to win the title. Clearly, we have to up our points tally and improve our qualifying performance. McLaren deserve the top spot, because even though they might not have the best car they have got the most out of it every time.”
While Alonso was able to make progress through the field, the same could not be said for Massa. Having lost position to Alonso, he also lost further ground to his rivals as he waited for service and was never able to make up much lost ground.
“This was a very complicated race and clearly I can’t be happy with the result," said Massa after dropping from the championship lead to fifth. "Of course, two points are better than nothing, but in the upcoming races we have to do better and that means working on the development of the car.
"Right from the start, it was difficult to make the right choice in terms of what tyres to use because of the changeable weather," the Brazilian continued. "As for the passing move Fernando made, I ended up on a puddle of water coming out of the hairpin and slightly lost control of the car - he managed to get inside me, passing me going into the pit lane. I lost some places because of it, as I had to wait for his stop to be finished.
"In the closing laps, I was struggling a lot with the tyres, but Michael [Schumacher] was suffering worse than me and I managed to pass him. We have seen how the situation can change radically from one race to the next, we need to work as hard as possible to try and get the most out of the potential at our disposal.”
Alonso is joint third in the championship standings with 49 points, while Ferrari drops behind Shanghai winners McLaren Mercedes.
Source: MadeInMOTORSPORT.com
