For Ferrari in Shanghai, once again it was a case of another race, another missed opportunity after 2010′s most bizarre race yet.

After a fairly decent qualfying, with Fernando Alonso once again fastest behind the Red Bulls and Massa just two tenths, albeit four positions, behind him, the team’s race was turned by the early safety car. Having waited too long for the rain in Malaysia’s qualifying, the team went for a complete reversal and pitted both cars after the soonest spots from the clouds. Ultimately the rain didn’t fall enough until much later in the race, meaning that both drivers had to pit for new tyres,  just to make up for their mistake of pitting…for new tyres.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing however. A quick judgement was needed after the safety car essentially presented teams with the chance of a free pitstop, and once again the weathermen suggested that the real rain was on the way. The team could blame anything from poor information to a misleading fortune cookie for their mistake, but ultimately it was this decision to pit that cost the Ferraris any chance to win. That and the decision to go against the call of F1′s finest weatherman, a certain Mr Button.

In truth, the team were lucky to score so highly after the bad call. The pain delivered by the first safety car was made up for by the second, which seemed a bizarre call simply to clear a bit of front wing debris off the track. My instinct is that in a dry race simple double waved yellows would’ve allowed for marshals to run onto the track, but with the wet weather conditions this might’ve been just a bit too much of a risk.

This second safety car was the best thing that could’ve happened to the Maranello outfit, with a 70 second gap from the leaders reduced to around 15. Without it, simply catching the likes of Kubica’s and Petrov’s Renaults would’ve been out of the question. The team also benefitted from Pedro de la Rosa’s Sauber blowing up, although reliability doubts in the Ferrari powerplant will continue to worry those in head office.

After all the choas of the first bucket of rain, a great move from Alonso on his teammate changed his race. Having been held up by teammate Massa at two of the past three races, the Spaniard launched inside Massa at the left-handed entrance to the pitlane. The move was especially impressive given how he’d run wide at the corner earlier in the race when unpressured; having visited the pits a full five times before the end of the race, it’s safe to say he’d mastered it by the end. Given his problems endured this season, he’ll be delighted to be just 11 points off the championship trail.

As for Massa, he again had a race in his teammate’s shade, finishing seventh. Despite a late move on ex-teammate Michael Schumacher, the race will do little to calm rumours of a Ferrari move for Robert Kubica – especially since he was beaten by the much more inexperienced Renault car of Vitaly Petrov too. We’ve never seen Massa fare too well in the wet, so he’ll be praying for some sunshine in Spain just to show us he’s still got it.

Overall, Ferrari will be annoyed at missing out on another big chunk of points, after being outthought by others. However, Lewis Hamilton also made the wrong decision to pit yet managed to recover to second, all the choas and confusion of the past few races may’ve misted over the fact that Ferrari just aren’t quite there yet.

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