Nico follows dad’s tracks

Nico Rosberg produced a commanding pole-to-flag win for Mercedes in China on Sunday to secure the first victory of his Formula One career, writes Alan Baldwin.
 
The German’s 111-race wait for a win ended in a joyous celebration as he joined an elite club of F1 drivers who have followed in the tracks of their racing fathers as grand prix winners.

Britain’s Jenson Button finished a distant second for Mercedes-powered McLaren, 20.6 seconds behind, after a pit stop problem wrecked what could have been a winning strategy for the man who won the 2009 title with Brawn.
 
Team mate and compatriot Lewis Hamilton had to settle for third place for the third race in a row to take the championship lead.

'It’s been the perfect weekend ... it couldn’t be better,' declared the 102nd driver and seventh German to win a grand prix since the championship started in 1950.

Rosberg, whose Finnish father Keke won the 1982 world championship with Williams, let out a yell of jubilation almost as long as the pit straight as he crossed the line to deliver the first win for a Mercedes works team since 1955.
 
'Brilliant race, Nico. Just brilliant!' yelled team principal Ross Brawn over the radio. Hamilton now has 45 points after three of the 20 rounds to Button’s 43. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, the double champion who had led before Shanghai, finished ninth and dropped to third overall with 37.

McLaren lead the constructors’ standings with 88 points to Red Bull’s 64.

Hamilton, a friend and former team mate of Rosberg before entering Formula One, was quick to congratulate his Monaco neighbour after a race won by the German without a single overtaking move for position after he rocketed away from pole.
 
'We knew that all weekend they had been quick and if we let these people get away it would be hard to catch him, so fantastic for him, congratulations,' he said. 'Your first pole and your first win is an incredible feeling.
 
'I think it was one of the best races so far this season, just because there was a lot of overtaking and there was a train of us – I think seven cars or something – it was incredible.'

The last Mercedes works team driver to stand on top of the podium was Argentina’s five-times champion Juan Manuel Fangio when he won the Italian Grand Prix from pole.
 
Mercedes pulled out of Formula One in 1955 and did not return, other than as a successful engine partner, until 2010 after buying Brawn GP.
 
Mercedes motorsport vice-president Norbert Haug, who had embraced Rosberg in a bear hug almost as soon as the driver stepped out of the car, joined his driver on the podium and was drenched in champagne with the eager assistance of Button and Hamilton.

Amid the jubilation, there was disappointment for Rosberg’s team mate and compatriot Michael Schumacher who had also started on the front row but became the sole retirement of the race when he pulled off on lap 13 with a wheel problem. The seven-times world champion, winner of a record 91 races with the last coming in Shanghai in 2006, had hoped for a first podium appearance since that season with Ferrari but a botched pit stop put paid to that.

To the despair of the mechanic on the front right wheel, Schumacher was given the signal to go before the nut was attached properly.

'The front wheel got a bit loose, but I don’t know what happened. I feel a bit sorry for one of my boys, but that’s part of the game,' said Schumacher philosophically.

Button had looked like catching Rosberg in a grandstand finale but a problem with his car’s rear left cost him vital seconds, leaving him stuck in traffic at a crucial point and unable to get enough heat into his tyres to close the distance.

Rosberg lapped at a steady pace as behind him a pack of cars jostled and scrapped wheel to wheel for points, with Finland’s 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen running in second place for Lotus before fading nine laps from the end with heavy tyre wear.

Red Bull’s Australian Mark Webber won a battle for fourth with world champion team mate Sebastian Vettel despite a moment when his car hit a kerb and reared up with both front wheels off the ground. Vettel went from second to fifth in the closing laps after starting 11th.

Frenchman Romain Grosjean took his first points in Formula One with sixth place for Lotus ahead of the Williams cars of Brazilian Bruno Senna and Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado. Sauber’s Japanese Kamui Kobayashi, who had started third, took the final point for Sauber in 10th.

RACE winners Mercedes have been fined 5,000 euros ($6,500) for allowing Michael Schumacher to leave the Chinese Grand Prix pit lane without a front wheel being properly attached in a bungled pit stop.
 
The fine for an unsafe release would have been greater for the German constructor, for whom the amount was little more than small change, had the seven times Formula One world champion not acted quickly to limit the danger.
 
'The prompt action of the driver, in stopping the car as soon as the problem was noticed, is taken into account in the penalty determination,' said race stewards in a statement.
 
Schumacher, who had started on the front row alongside team mate and eventual winner Nico Rosberg, pulled onto the grass and retired on the 13th lap.

TEAM-BY-TEAM ANALYSIS (listed in championship order):

MCLAREN (Jenson Button 2, Lewis Hamilton 3)
Hamilton, starting with a five place grid penalty due to a gearbox change, has still not won this season but is leading the championship after three third places in three races, showing impressive consistency and a new maturity. Button might have won had he not lost vital seconds in an agonisingly long final pitstop. McLaren increased their lead to 24 points.

RED BULL (Mark Webber 4, Sebastian Vettel 5)
Webber’s third fourth place in a row, but he was lucky to stay in the race after his car hit a kerb and reared up. Vettel started 11th, his lowest grid placing since 2009, and was 15th after the first lap. He was second in the closing laps but failed to cling on as the tyres faded. Still no win for the champions who dominated last year.

FERRARI (Fernando Alonso 9, Felipe Massa 13)
Alonso salvaged something with a three-stop strategy but Ferrari need to resolve their aerodynamic problems. Massa, on two stops, led briefly during the pitstops but has yet to open his 2012 account.

SAUBER (Kamui Kobayashi 10, Sergio Perez 11)
Kobayashi started in third place but was slow off the mark and lost places before getting stuck in traffic. He did three stops, with his tyres wearing out faster than expected. Perez, on a two-stopper, led briefly at the pitstops. Kobayashi set the fastest lap of the race, on lap 40.

MERCEDES (Nico Rosberg 1, Michael Schumacher retired)
Rosberg took his first grand prix win at the 111th attempt, becoming only the third son of a winning driver to win a race himself, after securing his first pole. The points were his first of the season. The win was the first for Mercedes as a works team since Juan Manuel Fangio in Italy in 1955. It also came 111 years after the car company’s first race win. Schumacher retired on lap 13 after a pitstop bungle left the right front wheel poorly fastened. The team were fined 5,000 euros ($6,500) for the unsafe release of the driver.

LOTUS (Romain Grosjean 6, Kimi Raikkonen 14)
Grosjean scored his first points in Formula One. Raikkonen started fourth, was in second place with nine laps to go and then fell off a performance cliff as the tyres faded.
 
WILLIAMS (Bruno Senna 7, Pastor Maldonado 8)
The drivers gave team principal Frank Williams a welcome 70th birthday present for Monday with their first double points haul of the campaign and first since October 2010. Maldonado reached the finish after two previous retirements with his first points since Belgium last year. It was only the second points finish of the Venezuelan’s F1 career. Senna started 14th.

FORCE INDIA (Paul Di Resta 12, Nico Hulkenberg 15)
Hulkenberg made a poor start and said he damaged his front wing on debris on the opening lap. He had to change the nose at the first stop. Not much to report from Di Resta ahead of his 26th birthday on Monday.
 
TORO ROSSO (Jean-Eric Vergne 16, Daniel Ricciardo 17)
Vergne started from the pit lane after a raft of changes overnight. Ricciardo got squeezed into turn one and lost places.
 
MARUSSIA (Timo Glock 19, Charles Pic 20)
The team’s third two car finish in three races.
 
CATERHAM (Vitaly Petrov 18, Heikki Kovalainen 23)

Kovalainen had a good start but had a problem with the right rear tyre after his second stop and had to come in again.

HRT (Pedro de la Rosa 21, Narain Karthikeyan 22)
Getting to the finish and putting miles on the car was an achievement in itself, even if Karthikeyan was two laps down.