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FERNANDO ALONSO DODGED the drama to take victory in an incident-filled Chinese Grand Prix this morning, beating Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton into second and third.
A charging Sebastian Vettel came fourth, just 0.2 seconds behind Hamilton, after adopting a different tyre strategy from most of his rivals, while his team-mate Mark Webber failed to finish on a dreadful weekend for him.
Red Bull were hit with a €5,000 fine after Webber’s right-rear wheel came off his on the 16th lap after his tyre came off. The Australian had been in the pits following a collision with Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne.
The team were fined for releasing the car with the wheel not properly fitted, although race stewards acknowledged that they were not aware of that when Webber was released from the pits and told him to stop once they knew.
Webber was later hauled before race stewards and hit with a penalty that will see him drop three places on the grid in Bahrain next weekend.
He explained: “I was coming from a reasonable distance behind, Jean-Eric was really wide, but when we came close to the apex he wanted to hit it, which he is entitled to do.
“But by then I was committed to the inside and the incident happened,” added Webber, whose car was damaged at the front, forcing him to pit.
“It was a couple of laps before our pit-stop window, so I had to come in early.
“The guys thought the tyre was fixed when we left the stop, but it came off on the out lap. We have had a few problems this weekend; I think we could have done something from our start position today, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
On top of the podium, Alonso said that he was delighted to get his season back on track.
“It feels good, it is a long time from my victory here eight years ago,” said the Spaniard. “It was not easy to understand this race sometimes, not an easy race. The risk is there when you overtake.
“This is a good reward for the team after the disappointment in Malaysia. Let’s hope this is now the start of the championship and we need to keep going like that.”
