Fernando Alonso's win at the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday announced the Ferrari driver as a strong contender for the Formula One championship after a comfortable victory in which he claimed to have plenty to spare.
Alonso took the lead for good with 13 laps to go and won by 10 seconds from Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen, with pole sitter Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes finishing third, just two tenths of a second ahead the hard-finishing Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull's Vettel retains the championship lead after three of 19 races, but his advantage is now just three points over Raikkonen, with Alonso moving into third, ahead of Hamilton. So authoritative was Alonso's performance that his team was cautioning him in the closing stages not to push too hard, only for the Spaniard to reply that he wasn't. After the race he gave his rivals something to think about in saying he won while retaining "some pace in the pocket."
Monday, March 17, 2025
