Lewis Hamilton took lights to flag victory at the 2014 Chinese Grand Prix. Remaining seemingly unchallenged right from free practice sessions on Friday he crossed the finish line ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg allowing Mercedes to claim their third one-two finish of the season (so far). The Ferrari of Fernando Alonso took third place claiming the Scarlet team’s first podium of the season. While it rained quite heavily all of Saturday, the race on Sunday was held in dry conditions but with cloudy skies.
Off the podium, Daniel Ricciardo took fourth place ahead of the 2013 World Champion and teammate Sebastian Vettel. It appears that Vettel, who dominated former teammate Mark Webber for most of their time together in the last three seasons, now has to fight his younger teammate who has been displaying a stronger race pace. Things appeared to have come to the fore when he was asked to move over for Ricciardo on lap 25 but did so only after having to make him fight for the place.
Nico Hulkenberg took sixth place for Force India ahead of the Williams of Valtteri Bottas with whom he had a significant scrap at various stages but managed to keep his position. Bottas’ teammate Felipe Massa, who began the race in sixth place and looked set to challenge for a podium, had his race fall apart during a botched pit stop on lap 14 when his pit crew mixed up the right and left rear tyres forcing him to spend a minute stationary in the pit box. He emerged in last place after the botched stop but managed to make up six positions to complete the race in 15th place.
Kimi Raikkonnen managed to bring the sister Ferrari home in eight place but was not able to show competitive pace as team Alonso but was able to hold on to his points scoring position. He finished the race ahead of the Force India of Sergio Perez and the Toro Rosso of Danni Kvyat who took the final points scoring position in the race.
Retirees included the Sauber Ferrari of Adrian Sutil and Frenchman Romain Grosjean who both retired due to mechanical issues. It is turning out to be a superb start to the season for Mercedes AMG Petronas who have won every race and taken 1-2 podium finishes in three of them. Nico Rosberg lead the championship with 79 points while teammate Lewis Hamilton is just behind with 75 points. Far behind is Fernando Alonso with 41 points in third place. In the constructers champions Mercedes is utterly dominant with 154 points ahead of Red Bull Renault who have 57 points and Force India who have 54 points.
The Formula 1 family now move to Europe with the Spanish Grand Prix which is scheduled to take place on the 9th, 10th and 11th of May, check in with our site for all the details from the next race weekend.
Photo: Mercedes-AMGF1 FB page
