Formula 1 Race Fifteen: Race

Massa, Hulkenberg, Sutil
Starting from the back, Massa overtook quickly, but then took a pit stop at the end of the first lap. Then the safety car came out, and in the midst of most other drivers pitting soon caught up to Hulkenberg and Sutil, who were stuck behind Timo Glock in tenth. And there they stayed until eventually Sutil overtook Glock, then Hulkenberg and Massa also overtook. Unfortunately, this manouvre had Glock scraping over the kerb, and he fell far behind with the loss of speed. Glock retired in lap 52. It was a good finish for Sutil, in eighth.

Alonso and Vettel
This was one of the closest races this season, with these two battling it out for first place with only a second or two between them. They even pitted at the same time, thanks to some good eyes in the Ferrari garage. Red Bull had no time to stop Vettel coming in, and couldn't get him out ahead of Alonso either. But Vettel got into his tyres quicker, and might have managed to get the lead if Kobayashi hadn't smashed into the wall under duress from Schumacher, and then had Senna hit him there, requiring a safety car. In the end, Alonso scraped a victory, which resulted in him getting second place in the championship just behind Webber.

Webber, Button and Hamilton
Webber's start was not great, but he persevered. He pitted with the majority under the first safety car, and fell down to eleventh. But he came back, having overtaken a few cars, because everyone ahead of him had yet to pit. Although he had no chance of going first or second, bad pit stop planning (or sheer desperation) by MacLaren put Hamilton and Button behind him as he went third. Then Hamilton tried an overtake on Webber, but it didn't quite work out. His rear suspension broke, and Hamilton was out of the race. After the finish, Hamilton was lucky to be third in the championship by a single point, followed by Vettel, and Button is fifth.

Other retirements
Kovalainen gets the award for 'most spectacular retirement 2010'. He was spun in a near collision with Buemi, and started spurting oil from the back of his car. For some crazy reason he decided not to pit, then burst into flame going along the home straight. Once he realised he was on fire, he jumped out of the car where a marshal handed him a fire extinguisher for him to put the flames out – with his driver protection, he was probably the safest to do it!
Nick Heidfeld also clashed with Schumacher and retired, which the stewards decided was a normal accident and not deserving of punishment. Trulli retired with a puncture on lap 29.

Kubica
He was forced to take a second pit stop after a puncture, but in a magnificent run towards the end of the race he overtook Schumacher, Petrov, Massa, Hulkenberg and Sutil with his better tyres to finish seventh.

In conclusion – an awesome, tense race. A great consecutive victory for Alonso, and a poor consecutive retirement for Hamilton. The championship is still anyone's game.


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