Hamilton Secures Hat-Trick of Wins

Lewis Hamilton won in China as he lead from start to finish as Mercedes reinforce their dominance this season. With team mate Nico Rosberg coming in second after battling through the field from fifth position.

Hamilton pulled away at approximately a second a lap in the early going and was in cruise control for the rest of the afternoon, with less tyre wear and better fuel consumption than his rivals, his victory was all but confirmed by the early stages of the race. Victory in the Chinese Grand prix gave Hamilton his third successive win this season, which is a first for the British driver throughout his Formula One career. This now leaves Hamilton just four points behind his Mercedes team mate as he aims to win his first Championship since 2008 in which he won in dramatic circumstances.

Rosberg’s race differed from Hamilton’s stroll in the park as he had to fight back from a first corner collision with Bottas, as the Williams driver hit Rosberg’s front wheel leaving the German having to fight back from sixth position. He soon made up ground on his team mate however, as he over took Massa on lap four and leapfrogged Ricciardo at the first round of pit stops. He overtook Vettel on lap 22 and set his sights on Alonso, eventually getting the better of the Ferrari driver in the latter stages of the race.

Finishing almost half a minute behind the two Mercedes’ was Fernando Alonso to give Ferrari their first podium of the season, although it all could have been different as Alonso and his former team mate Felipe Massa collided on the first corner of the race. He beat the battling Red Bull cars, who were locking horns again to see who is the better driver at the team. Daniel Ricciardo again beating his four time world champion team mate as they replicated the scene of the Bahrain Grand prix with Vettel being asked to move over for his faster team mate.  Vettel asked his engineer what tyres and strategy his team mate was on. Upon finding out that he was on the same as him with the only difference being that Ricciardo’s tyres were a few laps fresher than his own, the four time world champion simply responded “tough luck,” and took the fight to the Aussie, forcing his new team mate to race and over take him. This didn’t last long as two laps later he lost out to the Australian on the first turn of the lap.

Felipe Massa had a race to forget, after his first lap collision with Alonso, he went on to try and redeem himself with a decent points finish. Unfortunately that wasn’t going to be a care as his pit crew made a huge mistake with his first stop as they forgot to bring out rear tyres for the stop costing the Brazilian valuable time. In the end he left the pits dead last and had it all to do for the rest of the race in which he eventually fought to a 15th place finish.

Another solid drive by Nico Hulkenberg secured sixth place, Bottas took seventh from Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who has now been beaten comprehensively by Alonso in all four of his races since returning to Maranello. Force India’s Sergio Perez and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat took the final points positions.

Drivers’ Championship

Constructors Championship