2007 Chinese Grand Prix

Sunday –

The result closes Alonso to within four points of Hamilton going
into the final round, with Raikkonen a further three points adrift.

Hamilton had dominated the wet opening stages, but stayed out too
long on extremely worn intermediates tyres, and ran wide into the
gravel in the pitlane entry when he finally tried to make a stop. The
McLaren became beached in the gravel and the championship leader was
out of the race.

As Hamilton began to suffer badly with tyre wear, Raikkonen closed
right in on the leader. The McLaren was sliding around wildly and
lapping 10 seconds slower than it had earlier on.

After rebuffing several of Raikkonen’s passing attempts, Hamilton
eventually ran wide at Turn 8 on lap 28, allowing the Ferrari through.

Raikkonen then pulled away by up to six seconds per lap as Hamilton
struggled, and Alonso – who finally passed Massa at the hairpin on lap
26 – closed in on his title rival at an even faster rate.

I knew Kimi would be victorious. What a fantastic performance  – he made all the difference when it counted before his first pit stop and never stopped pushing till the end.

He was indeed the heaviest of the top four in qualifying, so it outlines his qualifying lap in particular, compared to Lewis’ light run for pole, as quite impressive. He was also struggling a little with the slippery track but kept control and put pressure on Hamilton. It was an emotional win of Kimi’s, personally to me, because sometimes dreams do come true for once and our dream was for Kimi to win this race. It felt right and justified after the poor circumstances at Japan, and most importantly – he deserved it! No matter how frustrating this season has been for the fans with the interference of huge egos, bitching, court rooms and penalties, Kimi brought a smile to my face. The fans there must have loved it. The race itself was brilliant with plenty of battles going on and superb drives.

We knew Kimi could do it and congratulations to him, the team, and the fans.
~ Keep flying Kimi!

Quotes

–Raikkonen hopes Brazil win brings title
Kimi Raikkonen – 1st: "I am very happy! It is a really great result for me and the whole
team, who done a truly excellent job," said Raikkonen. who gave Ferrari
their 200th victory in Formula One. "We needed this win and we got it. At the start of the race, I had a
lot of understeer but then the situation improved.

I was one of the
last to switch to dry tyres but this was a help as after a little while
the rain began to fall again. Even after the second stop I had a bit of understeer, but as
before, the situation improved in the final stages. I knew Alonso was
very quick but I was in full control of the situation. The car overall
was working well both in the wet and in the dry. Last week in Fuji, we
were unlucky but today things went right for us.

"We have had yet another example that in this sport anything can
happen. The situation in the drivers’ classification is still
difficult, but I will try everything to win in Brazil, even if the
final outcome does not just depend on what we do. It should be a great battle, very hard to predict and interesting."

Sunday quotes: Ferrari – Felipe Massa – 3rd: "All in all, finishing on the podium in a race like this is very
important and I am very happy for the team. There is one race to go:
anything can happen and we must continue to work to stay ahead of our
rivals."

Jean Todt: "It is great to be able to celebrate
Scuderia Ferrari’s two hundredth victory in Formula 1, here in
Shanghai, at the end of a difficult race, further complicated by the
unpredictability of the changes in the weather. Kimi brings his total
tally of the season to five and this is the team’s eighth. He drove an extraordinary race, without committing the slightest error."

Luca Baldisserri: "This was probably one of the
most difficult races of the season, characterized by very unstable
weather, with the rain coming and going. After the first pit stop, Kimi
gradually made up ground on Hamilton and could have got past earlier
but for the yellow flags. Then, as the track was drying, Kimi stepped up the pace and controlled a possible attack from Alonso."

Classified:
Pos  Driver        Team                    Time
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1h37:58.395
 2.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  +     9.800
 3.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  +    12.800
 4.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  +    53.500
 5.  Button        Honda              (B)  +    68.600
 6.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  +    73.600
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  +    74.200
 8.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  +    80.700
 9.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  +    81.100
10.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  +    84.600
11.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  +    86.600
12.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  +    1 Lap
13.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  +    1 Lap
14.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  +    1 Lap
15.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  +    1 Lap
16.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  +    2 Laps
17.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  +    3 Laps

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:37.454

Not classified/retirements:
Driver        Team                      On lap
Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)     34
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)     31
R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)     26
Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)     25
Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)     12

Photos – Download over 80 photos just from Sunday!

Mediafire – KRS China 2007 Sunday Photos.rar

Sendspace – KRS China 2007 Sunday Photos.rar

Here is a third link if others do not work:

KRS China 2007 Sunday Photos 2.rar

Size – 16MB

Videos

Post-Race Press Conference:

Download here

Parc Ferme and Podium:

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Kimi Passes Lewis:

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Hamilton retires in pit-lane gravel:

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Saturday – Qualifyinq, Kimi P2

Hamilton, Raikkonen and Massa lead the grid for the race – expect an exciting battle into turn 1!

Lewis Hamilton snatched pole position away from the Ferraris for the Chinese Grand Prix tomorrow, in a desperate attempt to secure his world championship dream.

Kimi was the fastest driver the whole weekend, through FP1 to the second session of qualifying however he suggests that there’s a lot of playing with fuel strategy as the reason why he missed out on pole by just a tenth of a second. Massa did a great job by keeping his Ferrari with Kimi at the top and looked like a serious contender for pole too and Alonso qualified off the pace in 4th.

After the hydraulic leak at the end of FP3, the team fixed Kimi’s car and he looks in great shape for the race despite not claiming pole position as most expected. Also, if the weather takes a turn as a typhoon is predicted near the track, the drivers clad in red will be prepared for an assault on the little hope of winning the WDC. Kimi’s race engineer Chris Dyer said they are comfortable for any conditions that may arise tomorrow.

I know all you fans were sunk back into your seats biting your nails, chanting ‘come on Kimi, come on Kimi’ and we’re disappointed he didn’t clinch pole. But, he is the fastest and he’ll prove it tomorrow again. A repeat of Silverstone? You bet!

Obviously, with the huge population of China, there are loads of Kimi fans, also from abroad. He has a massive fanbase there and it makes me smile to see them all so enthusiastic and supportive of our flying Finn. It must make the Iceman melt, even just a tiny bit. I wish all the fans in China, especially at the track who are doing a fantastic job supporting kimi, to have a great race tomorrow.

Quotes
Raikkonen upbeat despite no pole -"It was okay, I think we had good speed
yesterday already and this morning. In qualifying also it was good, but
looking at what happened in first and second qualifying there were
different fuels in the car. I am very happy with the car, it is good, and we have good car in the race. Last time we drove here it was wet in the race so it is not as
bad," he said. "The visibility should be better here. It depends how
much it is going to rain." 

China Saturday quotes: Ferrari – Kimi Raikkonen – 2nd: "Of course it would have been
better to be on pole, but all things considered, second place is a good
result, especially when you consider the uncertainty about how much
fuel those in the top ten are running.

"I am very happy with the handling of the car this weekend: we have
shown we are competitive in all conditions and I think that should be
the same even if it rains, which seems likely. I am confident. We know
the situation in the championship is pretty compromised but I will do
my all to try and win."

Felipe Massa 3rd: "A very close qualifying, from
start to finish. With four very closely matched drivers, all of them
capable of taking pole you have to always go to the maximum. I tried to
do that and, on my second run in Q3, it went wrong. I made a small
mistake which with the times being so close, made the difference.

"All the same, I think I will be competitive in the race, whatever
the weather. If it rains, the important thing will be to stay out in
front and not make any mistakes. I will be trying to win, but clearly
if it is required, I am ready to help the team and keep alive its
chances of winning the Drivers’ title."

Photos

Download a RAR file of all the photos
Mediafire – KRS China 2007 Saturday Photos.rar

Sendspace – KRS China 2007 Saturday Photos.rar

Videos
Last Minutes of Q3:

Download here

Full Post-Qlf Press Conference:



Download here
Alternate link – http://www.sendspace.com/file/mly2r3