2010 Chinese Grand Prix

Championship standings

Felipe Massa leads the World Drivers’ Championship with 39 points, two ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso and jointly ahead of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who won in Malaysia. Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg are tied for fourth with 35 points. Ferrari lead the Constructors’ Championship with 76 points; McLaren are second with 66 and Red Bull third with 61.

Previous race

Vettel won in Malaysia to take his first victory of the season, leading a Red Bull one-two with Webber second. Rosberg completed the podium. Both McLarens and both Ferraris started deep in the field after misreading the conditions in wet qualifying. Button clawed from 17th to eighth, Massa from 21st to seventh. Alonso’s engine failed late in the race from ninth place while running fastest laps on fresh tyres.

Between-race developments

The FIA has written to all teams warning that any system making aerodynamic adjustments to suspension or ride height after qualifying and before the race start will be outlawed under Articles 34.5 and 3.15 of the regulations. The clarification follows McLaren’s suggestion that Red Bull may have used such a device at Sepang, which Red Bull denied. McLaren has since stopped development of its own suspension system in response to the clarification.

Car upgrades

Red Bull introduces a small vertical exhaust duct to direct hot air away from the rear wheels and towards the diffuser’s side channels. Mercedes debuts a modified rear wing controlled by pressure sensors, feeding airflow through small openings at the back of the flap. Ferrari brings a revised aerodynamic package including a new splitter, altered diffuser, and additional vane. Williams and Renault have revised front wing end-plates; Renault also adds small vortex generators beside the cockpit.

Practice

Three practice sessions were held in accordance with the 2010 regulations. In the first session in hazy and cold weather, Button was fastest at 1:36.677 with Rosberg second and Hamilton third. Schumacher was fourth. Alonso stopped at turn six after 54 minutes with a right-hand exhaust bay fire and failed to set a lap time. With ten minutes remaining, Sébastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso suffered a catastrophic front upright failure under braking at the turn 14 hairpin: both front wheels sheared off simultaneously and the car was pitched into a barrier at high speed. Buemi was unhurt, but the session was red-flagged for debris clearance, and Toro Rosso kept Alguersuari in the garage while investigating. Virgin’s Timo Glock shed his front wing and Lotus’s Jarno Trulli lost his diffuser, both from bottoming out on a bump approaching turn one.

In the second session, Hamilton set the day’s fastest lap of 1:35.217 on soft tyres, with Button third. Rosberg and Schumacher duplicated their first session positions in second and fourth. Buemi was unable to set a time as his car was rebuilt. Kovalainen stopped with fading oil pressure near the end of the session.

In Saturday’s session, Webber set the fastest lap of 1:35.323 in the closing minutes, with Hamilton second and Vettel third. Vitaly Petrov ran wide onto the artificial grass at the final corner, lost control of his Renault, and crashed heavily into a tyre barrier. Petrov was unhurt; Whiting stopped the session for seven minutes for debris clearance.