Looks like the proverbial fortune cookie has provided good fortune to Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes AMG Petronas squad as Hamilton scored his third successive win in Shanghai, China. Nico Rosberg meanwhile settled for second, 18 seconds adrift from the dominating Hamilton, while Fernando Alonso gave Ferrari fans something to cheer about by crossing the finish line in third. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricardo once again finished ahead of Sebastian Vettel for fourth.
As the lights went out, Hamilton blazed to the front, but it wasn’t smooth sailing for Rosberg as he endured a sluggish start from the second row before clipping the Williams of Valtteri Bottas at the first corner, dropping him to seventh. That also damaged Rosberg’s car which was unable to send the much needed telemetry to his team, leaving him to relay data manually from his dashboard all afternoon.
While Alonso gave much needed motivation to Scuderia Ferrari with his third place finish, Kimi Raikkonen endured a frustrating race with his eighth place finish, a minute behind Alonso. McLaren’s luck continued to deteriorate as both drivers finished out of the top ten, while Williams’ Felipe Massa was luckless as his disastrous pitstop put an end to his points scoring position.
However, a bizarre event took place on the closing stages of the race when the official waved the chequered flag two laps prematurely, which meant the race ended on lap 54 rather than the supposed 56. That sadly negated Kamui Kobayashi’s last-lap pass on Marussia rival Jules Bianchi for 17th position, while the remaining results remained status-quo.
The F1 circus returns to Europe with the Spanish Grand Prix on 11 May.
RESULTS
1. Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes-Mercedes 54 laps 1hr 33m 28.338s
2. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes +00m 18.0s
3. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari-Ferrari +00m 23.6s
4. Daniel Ricciardo Australia Red Bull-Renault +00m 27.1s
5. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault +00m 47.8s
6. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Force India-Mercedes +00m 54.3s
7. Valtteri Bottas Finland Williams-Mercedes +00m 55.7s
8. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari-Ferrari +01m 16.3s
9. Sergio Perez Mexico Force India-Mercedes +01m 22.6s
10. Daniil Kvyat Russia Toro Rosso-Renault +1 lap
11. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
12. Jean-Eric Vergne France Toro Rosso-Renault +1 lap
13. Kevin Magnussen Denmark McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
14. Pastor Maldonado Venezuela Lotus-Renault +1 lap
15. Felipe Massa Brazil Williams-Mercedes +1 lap
16. Esteban Gutierrez Mexico Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap
17. Jules Bianchi France Marussia-Ferrari +1 lap
18. Kamui Kobayashi Japan Caterham-Renault +1 lap
19. Max Chilton Briton Marussia-Ferrari +2 laps
20. Marcus Ericsson Sweden Caterham-Renault +2 laps
Retired Romain Grosjean France Lotus-Renault 30 laps completed
Retired Adrian Sutil Germany Sauber-Ferrari 7 laps completed
Fastest lap:
Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 40.402s lap 39
[Image Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas]
