The Chinese Grand Prix went down today in much drier conditions than yesterday. But who would prevail in hazy Shanghai? Come with me below the fold to find out…
Hamilton dominates in China to win 3rd race in a row. Mercedes teammate Rosberg 2nd and Alonso salvages Ferrari pride with 3rd
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Englishman Lewis Hamilton sprinted away from the pole and never faced any real challenge to his superior pace in China, winning his 3rd consecutive Grand Prix in dominant fashion. Two weeks after their thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle for supremacy in Bahrain, Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg started from fourth on the grid and without functioning telemetry but managed to fight through that and his nearest competitors to take 2nd place, 18 seconds behind. That enabled the German to maintain his seemingly precarious lead in the F1 Drivers’ Championship by a mere 4 points over Hamilton. Mercedes now leads the Constructors’ Championship by a whopping 97 points.
Fernando Alonso had a very strong race for Ferrari to take the last step on the podium after a tumultuous week for the fabled Scuderia. The Spaniard was able to hold off the surging Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo as the laps wound down and give a very happy debut present to Marco Mattiacci as new team boss after zero podiums in 3 races this year under the departed Stefano Domenicali. Ricciardo settled for an impressive 4th place and bested his veteran teammate Sebastian Vettel by about 20 seconds. Both Force India machines also finished in the points, with Nico Hulkenberg behind Vettel in 6th and Sergio Perez having a terrific drive to come home 9th after qualifying a lowly 16th.
Rounding out the top 10, Valtteri Botas had to carry the flag for Williams after a disastrousluy long and confused pit stop put his Brazilian teammate Filipe Massa completely out of contention. The young Finn managed a a decent 7th place even after he banged wheels with Rosberg on the opening lap. Ferrari’s now decidedly #2 driver Kimi Raikkonen fought reasonably well for his 8th position after qualifying 11th and 19-year-old Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat took the last points-paying position with an impressive 10th place after starting 13th.
Noticeably absent from the points were the two McLarens of Jenson Button (11th) and rookie Kevin Magnussen (13th). After a decent first two races, McLaren seems to be going backwards and their chassis struggled with tire graining and getting enough heat into the fronts in the cool conditions this weekend due to overall lack of downforce.
For former McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, however, all was essentially perfect. With his pole on Saturday he moved into 4th all-time for that statistic with 34 and with his win Sunday he tied legends Jim Clark and Nikki Lauda for 8th with 25 F1 victories. It seems only a matter of time before Hamilton passes his teammate Rosberg in the Drivers’ Championship and equally inevitable that Mercedes will continue to dominate the Constructors’ part of the Championship. Still, with only 4 races complete and F1’s return to Europe for the Continental portion of the schedule yet to come, the the struggle for the ultimate prizes in 2014 is a long way from over. It’s just that Mercedes has gotten off to such a blistering start that it already feels like a fait accompli.
Top 10 finishers in China here:
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 54 | 1:33:28.338 | 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 54 | +18.0 secs | 4 | 18 |
| 3 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 54 | +23.6 secs | 5 | 15 |
| 4 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 54 | +27.1 secs | 2 | 12 |
| 5 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 54 | +47.8 secs | 3 | 10 |
| 6 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 54 | +54.3 secs | 8 | 8 |
| 7 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 54 | +55.7 secs | 7 | 6 |
| 8 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 54 | +76.3 secs | 11 | 4 |
| 9 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 54 | +82.6 secs | 16 | 2 |
| 10 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | STR-Renault | 53 | +1 Lap | 13 | 1 |
Complete results at Formula1.com here.
The next race weekend will be May 9-11th for the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. Hope to see you then!