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Hamilton wins in Shanghai again
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LEWIS Hamilton became the first Formula One driver to defend his title at the Chinese Grand Prix by sealing a second one-two finish of the season for Mercedes alongside teammate Nico Rosberg.
The duo managed to retain their 1-2 position from the start and through the race. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was third, followed by teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
“We knew that the Ferraris were very, very good with their long-run pace and also looking after their tires so today the real goal was to manage the tires and my goal was to look after my car,” two-time world champion Hamilton said at the post-race press conference.
His teammate Rosberg voiced some frustration immediately, saying he spent much time covering for Hamilton.
“It’s just now interesting to hear from you, Lewis, that you were just thinking about yourself with the pace in front and unnecessarily that was compromising my race,” the German said.
“Driving slower than was maybe necessary meant Vettel was very close to me, and that opened up the opportunity for him to do the early stop and meant I had to cover him. That cost me race time, and as a result my tires died (at the end of the race) as my stint was much longer.”
Hamilton said he didn’t intentionally try to impede his teammate, neither did he feel threatened by Rosberg during the race. “It’s not my job to look after Nico’s race. My job’s to manage the car and bring the car home as fast as possible. If Nico wanted to get by, he could have tried.”
It was the Briton’s 25th career win and also his fourth in Shanghai, having won here in 2008, 2011, and 2014.
The race was practically over with two laps left after Max Verstappen’s Toro Rosso stopped on the track due to engine failure, bringing out the safety car.
The drivers finished the rest of the race behind the safety car, which came out just in time for Vettel, who barely managed to hold off Raikkonen at the end.
Placed sixth in qualifying, Raikkonen had a fantastic start, soaring past Williams duo Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas to get to the back of his teammate right on the first lap.
“I tried to push (in the latter part), but with the safety car, you can’t do much,” the Finn said. “The result is not ideal for the team, but we have to be realistic given where we were last year. We are going in the right way, and maybe we have to do Saturdays more correctly so as to put more challenges before Mercedes.”
Vettel also said he gave everything he had in the race. “Maybe we should have put more pressure on them (Mercedes) at the beginning,” the German said.
From fifth to tenth were Williams’ Massa and Bottas, Romain Grosjean of Lotus, Felipe Nasr of Sauber, Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull and another Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson.
Hamilton tops the drivers’ standing on 68 points after three races, followed by Vettel on 55 and Rosberg on 51.
Mercedes sits comfortable at the top of the constructors’ standing on 119 points, 40 more than second-placed Ferrari.
Both McLaren cars managed to complete the race. Fernando Alonso finishing 12th while Jenson Button was dropped from 13th to 14th after accepting blame for his late coming-together with Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado. Button had five seconds added to his race time and was docked two points for contacting with the rear of Maldonado’s car on lap 49. Maldonado went for a spin and ultimately retired.
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