As the sun beamed down on the Shanghai International Circuit, LewisHamilton took his second successive win in China. Hamilton cruised to the finishline with the Chinese Grand Prix finishing behind the safety car.
It was a case of business as usual, as Nico Rosberg completedanother Mercedes 1-2 finish, with Sebastian Vettel again reaching the podiumfor Ferrari.
This was the third race in succession where we have seen the same threedrivers on the podium this year. Also notably, Hamilton notched up his 35thwin after taking pole position yesterday.
Vettel’s team mate, Kimi Räikkönen, took advantage of a great start,passing both the Williams of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas for fourth place.The Finn would finish behind the four-time world champion, with Massa stayingahead of Bottas for fifth in a very lonely race.
Romain Grosjean, who qualified eighth, finished behind the Williamspair in seventh, scoring his first points since last year’s Monaco Grand Prix, withSauber’s Felipe Nasr finishing eighth as a result of young Toro Rosso prodigyMax Verstappen suffering a drive train failure on the start/finish line with just 4laps left to go.
Red Bull’s day had its fair share of ups and downs, as Daniil Kvyatsuffered a very public engine failure, forcing the Russian to retire on lap 16.However teammate Daniel Ricciardo suffered a botched start before making hisway through the field to finish ninth, ahead of Marcus Ericcson, who took thefinal point of the afternoon.
Force India had an afternoon to forget, as Sergio Perez finishedjust outside the points in 11th, whilst team mate Nico Hülkenberg’srace came to an abrupt end on lap 10, where the German was forced to retirewith a gearbox issue.
Fernando Alonso completed his first full race distance forMcLaren-Honda, finishing in 12th ahead of British team mate JensonButton, who was reprimanded for his clash with Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado, whoretired after the former clattered into the Venezuelan from behind.
Button was then given a five second timepenalty and two points put on his super licence after the race had finished,demoting him to 14th.
Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz, along with teammate Verstappen, found themselvesout of any points finishes this time around. The safety car then came out as a result of the Dutch youngster's sudden retirement and controlled the race to its end,whilst there were cheers from the crowd regarding the moving of his car backinto pit lane.
Sainz would eventually end up ahead of Button, due to thereprimand from the stewards.
The next round takes place in the sand surrounding of Bahrain nextweekend, as the race towards the title increases in intensity between the twomen who will again be fighting at the front.
