Vettel Reigns As Massa Shines In The Gloom

Kate’s Dirty Little Sister won the Chinese Grand Prix in only her second race this year. 

After the sad death of Kate in Australia when Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica colluded to ruin both their races, an updated car with extra bits was produced for Malaysia and Vettel continued his tradition of naming his cars, but this time with a racier edge.  She’s certainly a good swimmer.

Vettel was supreme in the appalling conditions that greeted the drivers come three o’clock on Sunday afternoon; his car cutting through the pools of water.

By the time of the first pit stops he had enough time in hand over Jenson Button to be right behind him when he came out the pits with Button still to make his stop. It went almost perfectly to plan for the Red Bull duo.

Mark Webber had a good fight with Button diving around the outside into turn seven, and was almost the equal of Vettel for pace. Surely this Australian fighter will have his winning day soon.

But behind the heroics of the top three, and cruising back to the paddock on the back of a marshals motorbike was Felipe Massa. 

Still thought of as a nearly man, and not getting nearly enough of the credit he deserves, Massa is again proving to the rest of the world that he will continue to defy expectations.

His reputation in the wet went from indifferent to appalling after five spins at Silverstone last year;  never mind that his teammate Kimi Raikkonen did exactly the same and his good wet weather reputation survived.

People noticed as he won in the mixed conditions of Brazil last year, and now in China 2009, people should really be sitting up. As Kimi stormed to the back of the field (albeit with a misfiring engine), Massa went the opposite way. 

Making cool decisive manoeuvres in a car tanked up with fuel, he rose from 13th on the grid to third in 20 laps in blinding spray.  His cutting move past Kimi was especially impressive, just easing his car in to the space through the mist.

Other victims included Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, as well as cruising past a spinning Lewis Hamilton, the man who had destroyed the opposition at Silverstone the year before.

In fact, Lewis was in fine form at the beginning of the race before losing grip from the tyres, resulting in him questioning his own driving style although more likely he was just a victim of circumstance.

But everyone has their good days and their bad days, through skill and through misfortune. Felipe Massa, staying cool in the showers this time, proceeded to exit the pits just behind Button as the safety car came out to clear up debris from a Robert Kubica and Jarno Trulli crash;  both having slow and poor races.

Massa was in a good position, lapping just off the pace of Vettel, and now waiting to be let off the leash again to attack Button with over 10 laps left until his pit stop  It was a straight race for all now with everyone only having to pit one more time. 

A podium was definitely on, but it wasn't Massa’s day.  His cars electrics died as the safety car was about to come in. It was just another reminder that even with the struggles of Ferrari this year he will continue to be a shining light of defiance.

If anything, it’ll have given hope to Ferrari that they can still fight at the front.  It’ll perhaps give encouragement and inspiration even more so than the speeches of motivation he has been offering to the team.

Vettel swept through the waves to justify peoples expectations of his rising star.  Massa again defied them in what looks like will be a challenging season for him but one which will continue to add more strength and resolve to him than ever.