Sunday, April 12, 2015

Hamilton completes dominating weekend to win Chinese Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton was in control throughout the entire race as he made it two wins out of three races to start the 2015 season as he only relinquished the lead during pit stops. Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg came home behind Hamilton in 2nd place but was able to match the pace of Hamilton for most of the race. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel rounded out the podium in 3rd.


The two Mercedes cars got off the grid first ahead of the Ferrari''s which put them in control of the race right from the start. Ferrari was able to match the Mercedes during the first two stints but after switching to the prime tires for the final stint the two Mercedes cars were able to put a gap in between. Behind Mercedes, Kimi Raikkonen was able to jump from 6th to 4th after the first few corners as he was able to match Vettel's pace for most of the race. Raikkonen lost a bit of time to Vettel during the pit stops and was able to make most of it back up on track but did not have enough time to make up all of it.

Overall it was a fairly quiet race although there were a few incidents. Jenson Button ran into the back of Pastor Maldonado as the two headed in to turn 1 which put an end to Maldonado's race. Also with three laps to go Max Verstappen's engine blew as he was running in 8th place which caused the race to end under the safety car.

Behind Ferrari and Mercedes Williams had a really quiet race as the two drivers spent most of it by themselves. Massa was able to lead the way between the two of them as he came home in 5th while Valtteri Bottas finished in 6th.

Lotus had a solid day as Romain Grosjean brought the car home in 7th place which is the first time he has scored points since Monaco last year. Even though Maldonado retired he had a solid first half of the race and looked to be on place for points himself but overshot the pit lane entrance and then got ran into by Button.

Sauber had a good day as both of its drivers were able to score points. Felipe Nasr finished in 8th place while Marcus Ericsson came home 10th. The Sauber team has made a drastic improvement from last year in which they did not score any points all year and they have now scored points in two of the three races this year.

Red Bull had another day to completely forget as Daniel Ricciardo was the only Red Bull finisher as he came home in 9th place. He had a slow start in which he fell from 7th to 17th and had to spend his whole race recovering. The other Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat retired due to an engine issue early on. As noted before tension between Red Bull and Renault is extremely high and an engine failure during the race will not help ease the tension at all.

Force India had a pointless day as Sergio Perez finished in 11th while Nico Hulkenberg retired early on due to a gearbox failure. Perez was in some good battle throughout the race but overall had a quiet day.

McLaren did not score any points but can be satisfied that both cars finished for the first time this year and the team can hopefully gain some valuable data. Alonso finished ahead of Button as he finished 12th to Button's 13th. Button looked like he was going to finish ahead of Alonso until he was involved in the accident with Maldonado as he punted him from behind into turn 1 but was able to continue.

Toro Rosso looked to be on for more points until Max Verstappen had an apparent engine failure with just three laps which brought out the safety car while he was running in 8th place. Verstappen had an entertaining race pulling off some good overtaking moves. The other Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz came home in 14th

Even though the Manor drivers were 15th and 16th and the last two runners they can be proud of themselves as they were able to bring both cars home to the finish. It was just two weeks ago that they fired the cars up for the first time and they have already completed a full race distance with both cars.

In the Drivers' Championship Lewis Hamilton opens up a 13 point lead over Sebastian Vettel who is 4 points ahead of Nico Rosberg



Pos. Driver Team
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari
5 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes
6 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes
7 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes
8 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari
9 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault
10 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari
11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes
12 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda
13 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda
14 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Renault
15 Will Stevens Manor-Ferrari
16 Roberto Merhi Manor-Ferrari
Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes

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