Lewis Hamilton cruised to an untroubled third win in a row in the Chinese Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver was never threatened on the way to his third consecutive win and his third victory in China.
Team mate Nico Rosberg claimed second after recovering from a poor start. He passed the Red Bull drivers and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari to give Mercedes their third one-two finish in a row.
Alonso held on for Ferrari’s first podium finish of the season despite some pressure from Daniel Ricciardo, who had fresher tyres for the final stint.
Ricciardo made his first pit stop later than Alonso having fallen behind the Ferrari driver and Sebastian Vettel at the start. He caught his team mate just before half-distance, and for the second race in a row Vettel was told to let Ricciardo by.
But this time Vettel wasn’t as co-operative as he had been in Bahrain. When told Ricciardo was on the same medium tyres as him he replied “tough luck”, and stayed ahead for over a lap before finally relinquishing the position at turn one, having been told at least twice to do so.
Team principal Christian Horner later told his driver they had been planning to switch him to a three-stop strategy at the time he was told to let Ricciardo through.
The Red Bulls finished in that order, with Nico Hulkenberg in sixth place and Valtteri Bottas behind after being forced wide by Rosberg at the first corner.
The other Williams of Felipe Massa also had contact at the first corner, with Alonso, and his race was ruined by a slow pit stop.
Kimi Raikkonen, Sergio Perez and Daniil Kvyat completed the points scorers, the latter inside the top ten for the third time in his first four grand prix starts.
2014 Chinese Grand Prix
- Alonso wins Driver of the Weekend after China podium
- Dull Chinese Grand Prix gets lowest score so far
- 2014 Chinese Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Top ten pictures from the 2014 Chinese Grand Prix
- Vote for your Chinese GP driver of the weekend
Image © Pirelli/LAT
Akin Aslan (@hamfanatic)
20th April 2014, 9:59
Good race from Lewis and Fernando and also Daniel. Other than that it was just a normal race. Just a question am I the only one thinking there is some tension between the Mercedes pair? Minimum amount of words and Rosberg behaving like a little child when Lewis on the podium said that he also was happy for Nico coming second for a 1-2
rantingmrp (@rantingmrp)
20th April 2014, 10:01
Yeah, Nico is feeling the pressure, and his response is coming out all wrong.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
20th April 2014, 10:04
I was disappointed by how both Rosberg and Vettel behaved today in response to their teammates mostly. I was expecting better.
Daniel (@brooks)
20th April 2014, 10:10
Nico looks very unhappy, his facial expression says it all.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
20th April 2014, 10:19
Same thing happened to the real Britney
D (@f190)
20th April 2014, 11:27
He’ll shave his head next
OOliver
20th April 2014, 10:29
It’s been a long race, and they can’t always be chatty, even at that they did exchange a few words. I don’t think much is wrong here.
GB (@bgp001ruled)
21st April 2014, 4:25
what do you expect? hamilton is saying he is happy for roseberg coming second!?!?!?!?!? i mean lewis is not the brightest chap! remember his comments about schumi!
rantingmrp (@rantingmrp)
20th April 2014, 10:01
Lewis was just supreme. He is in a good place right now mentally. The body language coming from Nico should worry the Mercedes management though – he seemed rather angry for a while there on the podium. Barcelona should be interesting.
dex022 (@dex022)
20th April 2014, 10:03
I think he is angry only to himself cause he new that his poor saturday performance and bad start of the race cost him shot at 1st place today.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
20th April 2014, 10:17
Don’t worry Lewis is also very good in mind games, i think he succeeded to get under Roseberg’s skin with the story of his “telemetry file” in Malaysia after beating him while he was at a disadvantage in Bahrain. In the podium he was trying to ignore Roseberg and was speaking with Fernando, this is just like they were the big boys and Roseberg is the child
OOliver
20th April 2014, 10:31
Or he hasn’t shared a podium with Fernando in a while.
zippyone (@zippyone)
20th April 2014, 11:50
Lewis and Fernando looked very cosy….would love to know what they were talking about.
Hamilfan (@hamilfan)
21st April 2014, 9:17
@zippyone yeah would have liked that . The camera focused on Nico instead .
Aimal (@aimalkhan)
20th April 2014, 10:03
Great job Fernando. Still not happy but it’ll do for now…
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
20th April 2014, 10:19
Yes especially in strategy how he undercut Vettel and then Roseberg, shame that Mercedes is just a rocket
Eggry (@eggry)
20th April 2014, 10:36
Hamilton would cruise to WDC. I doubt Nico could do anything but occasional wins.
RL
20th April 2014, 10:46
Most of us in Rosberg’s position would feel aggravated. You have the best car package, you’re leading the championship standings, but the last three races you’ve either been decisively defeated twice and pushed out of a race you should’ve easily won.
Breno (@austus)
20th April 2014, 12:12
So you’re saying he is Barrichello.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
20th April 2014, 20:33
I’ve no idea which of the preceding races that’s a reference to?
N
20th April 2014, 11:35
Anyone know if Hamilton actually got race fastest lap as well? Don’t remember them mentioning who got it during the race.
Think that would make it another Grand Slam if he did
zippyone (@zippyone)
20th April 2014, 11:51
Think Rosberg actually got FLAP.
zippyone (@zippyone)
20th April 2014, 11:54
Congratulations to Lewis for 3 wins in a row! 3/3 so far when finished.
I know it’s so early but he looks unbeatable this season.
Jason (@jason12)
20th April 2014, 12:19
VET can be fast but he’s just not an out and out RACER.
GB (@bgp001ruled)
21st April 2014, 4:29
more than roseberg, he is!
JohnnyT
20th April 2014, 12:47
why no talk about the mercedes rear wing which is flexing a lot?
every time a part of the red bull bodywork moved a bit this place was in uproar about how it was an illegal car.
double standards it seems.
OOliver
20th April 2014, 13:33
That is not flexing, but buffeting and I’ve seen the Redbull and many other cars do the very same thing. The whole wing assembly, including the endplates vibrates at very high speeds.
Hamilfan (@hamilfan)
21st April 2014, 9:19
with crosswinds also
Vaibhav
20th April 2014, 13:25
Hamilton proved today that how much a car can make a difference. Previously it was Vettel with their supreme Red Bull downforce.
Now Mercedes is pulling away from everyone with their innovative split turbo technology.
For the championship I guess it is going to be very surprising if Mercedes didn’t win the title.
knoxploration
20th April 2014, 17:35
Another predictable, yawn worthy result, and the first race in over two decades that I didn’t (and won’t) bother to watch. I popped on to check the result was what I expected, and that’s it.
Spoiler alert: Mercedes 1-2 in the next race, Hamilton wins. And the next one. And the one after that.
Enjoy the new F1, folks. You got what you asked for: a new team dominating. Sadly, they’re dominating largely due to a homologated engine advantage that can’t (and won’t) be caught up. When Red Bull, Ferrari and others dominated, it was always in an area other teams were free to develop, not a homologated one.
Me, I’m no longer an F1 fan, because there is no longer anything sporting about it. Homologated advantages, push to pass, double points, you name it — they might as well borrow Formula E’s tweet-to-pass at this point.. I’m unsubscribing all my F1 feeds and won’t even be looking at the results from now on. I already know them, barring freak weather / safety car results, after all. What’s the point of watching?
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
20th April 2014, 19:36
And yet every single race weekend you are here making a comment. If you don’t like F1 anymore stop wathcing the races and commenting on F1 websites, i think you will be happier.
gweilo8888 (@gweilo8888)
21st April 2014, 5:10
I take it you missed where I said I won’t be watching or reading any more. This was my farewell; I won’t be back.
gweilo8888 (@gweilo8888)
21st April 2014, 5:11
BTW I am knoxploration. Apparently my tablet is logged in with an older ID.
GB (@bgp001ruled)
21st April 2014, 4:32
ok, just please stop posting comments then…