Lewis Hamilton makes it three in a row in China
Lewis Hamilton raced away from pole position at Sanghai in the Chinese F1 Grand Prix 2014 and comfortably opened up a huge lead. He stamped his class all over the race and won it comfortably.
Nico Rosberg who started the race from 4th position breathed down the neck of Fernando Alonso, who had a great start, and could overtake him in Lap 42, the long straights in China favouring the powerful Mercedes engine more than the Ferrari. Rosberg finished second with a massive gap of 18.6 seconds.
Fernando Alonso finished in third position and this would come as a morale booster for the struggling Ferrari team.
Sebastian Vettel had a good start and had passed his teammate Daniel Ricciardo who had started ahead of him in 2nd place. However, he was tricked into believing that Ricciardo was in a different strategy than him and hence he allowed Ricciardo to pass. Later on Vettel was told that they were on the same strategy. Wish we can see some of the behind the scenes antics of Vettel after the race. Looks like Daniel Ricciardo is the new boy favoured by the Red Bull team after his good performance of beating Vettel in the first three races of the season. Daniel Ricciardo finished in fourth position followed by Sebastian Vettel in 5th.
Nico Hulkenberg of Force India finished 6th. He could barely manage to hold off Valtteri Bottas of Williams by half a second. The other Williams car driver by Felipe Massa was not so fortunate as despite having a good start he had hit the sides of Alonso’s car. Perhaps that was the cause of the pitstop problem where the mechanics struggled to replace the tyres and hence Massa was forced to drop down the order and never recovered from that.
Kimi Raikkonen had an uneventful race. He finished in 8th position. Sergio Perez would be happy to take 2 points from the race as he finished in 9th position followed by Danil Kvyat of Toro Rosso in 10th.
Chinese F1 Grand Prix 2014 Results:
1. Lewis
Hamilton Mercedes
2. Nico
Rosberg Mercedes
3. Fernando
Alonso Ferrari
4. Daniel
Ricciardo Red Bull
5. Sebastian
Vettel Red Bull
6. Nico
Hulkenberg Force India
7. Valtteri
Bottas Williams
8. Kimi
Raikkonen Ferrari
9. Sergio
Perez Force India
10. Danil
Kvyat Toro Rosso
11. Jenson
Button McLaren
12. Jean-Eric
Vergne Toro Rosso
13. Kevin
Magnussen McLaren
14. Pastor
Maldonado Lotus
15. Felipe
Massa Williams
16. Esteban
Gutierrez Sauber
17. Kamui
Kobayashi Caterham
18. Jules
Bianchi Marussia
19. Max
Chilton Marussia
20. Marcus
Ericsson Caterham
Retirements in Chinese F1 Grand Prix
Romain Grosjean Lotus
Adrian Sutil Sauber