2013 Formula 1 Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso put his championship campaign right back on track in China, while Mark Webber's spectacular woes continued.

Ferrari's Spaniard Alonso won a tyre and strategy-dominated Shanghai race, having retired from the Malaysian grand prix three weeks ago.

He is now just 9 points behind title leader Sebastian Vettel, while Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton are also within a 12-point cluster separating the drivers' standings' top four.

"At moment I think Ferrari, Red Bull, Lotus and Mercedes are similar," said Alonso on Sunday. "It's very close to call and a very open championship."

In total contrast, and with the 'Multi-21' misery still in memory, Mark Webber's woes deepened in China.

After running out of fuel and being disqualified on Saturday, the Australian crashed into Red Bull stablemate Jean-Eric Vergne during the race, earning him a three-place grid penalty for Bahrain in a week.

His race ended when his wheel fell off.

"This is one of the worst weekends he's ever had," pundit Eddie Jordan told British television BBC.

More generally, while this year's races are undoubtedly action packed, outspoken purist Jacques Villeneuve admitted on Sunday "I don't like modern formula one".

"There was no action," said the 1997 world champion, joining the chorus of criticism of the heavily-degrading tyre-induced strategic racing.

"Lot of overtaking but no action," Villeneuve explained. "Lot of drivers minding their own pace."

F1's fast-paced calendar moves on to Bahrain next week.

"The celebrations tonight will be nothing special as I have an early flight for Bahrain," Alonso said on Sunday.

"I'll have some dinner and the guys will probably party more than me."

Formula 1 2013 standings after F1 Chinesse GP

F1 Australian GP Standings

F1 Australian Grand Prix

Kimi Raikkonen shocked his critics and blew away the hopes of the Ferraris and Red Bulls when he won the Australian GP by adopting a smart two stop strategy. He was able to sustain enough life in the rubber of his Lotus to successfully implement the strategy and emerge victorious, yet termed it as the “easiest win of his career”. Raikkonen started from seventh position on the grid before slicing his Lotus in the second stint to clinch the win. Having made just a couple of stops, Raikkonen was a good 7.7 seconds ahead of his nearest rival Alonso in the latter half of the race, and by the time the chequered flag was out, he had expanded his lead to a comfortable 12.4 seconds.

Fernando Alonso finished an impressive second as he displayed that the Ferrari is certainly one of the strongest contenders for this year's title. Earlier, it was Sebastian Vettel who had a great start after qualifying on pole and comfortably sprinted ahead of the traffic. However he was unable to convert his start into a win as he seemed slow several times and finished third. Felipe Massa showed his competitive streak when he led Alonso for a good part of the race before slipping down after a pit stop when Alonso was called in earlier. Massa finished fourth.


Lewis Hamilton who stood fifth put in a great performance after a good start as he covered Fernando Alonso in the first corner. Hamilton went on to finish a creditable fifth on his first ever outing for Mercedes. Following Hamilton in sixth was Mark Webber who despite starting second on the grid couldn’t put his act together after suffering a terrible launch at the start line. Adrian Sutil who returns to Formula One after a year long hiatus took everyone by surprise as he drove his Mercedes powered Force India to an impressive seventh position ahead of his teammate Paul Di Resta. At one point, Sutil even led large parts of the race as the trio of Vettel, Alonso and Massa followed him, before losing the lead. Jenson Button and Romain Gorsjean filled up the final points positions as they finished ninth and tenth respectively.