2015 Chinese Grand Prix: A Short Review and Championship Standings

After the hope of Sebastian Vettel‘s victory at the last race, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes dominated this Chinese Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg had to settle for second place, ahead of Vettel and his team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

The race was close at times, but never really came to life – much like the season’s opening event in Melbourne.

Hamilton had made it clear from the outset that he was going to be aggressive, angling his car towards Rosberg’s on the grid. He maintained his grid position off the line with Rosberg and Vettel following him through the first stint.

The middle section of the race saw a little tension as both Rosberg and Vettel shortened the gap to Hamilton – who was a cause of frustration to Rosberg who believed Hamilton was deliberately holding him up and accelerating his tyre degradation as a result.

An attempt to get by using the pit stops failed as Hamilton raise his pace considerably on his final soft tyre laps. Hamilton ran two laps longer than Rosberg, building up a 6-second cushion by doing so.

A safety car appeared with two laps remaining – the Renault engine of Max Verstappen’s Toro Rosso making him stop on the pit straight in a cloud of smoke – making Hamilton’s comfortable win very easy as the race finished under yellow flag conditions.

Vettel’s third place only really came under threat from fellow Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen who had swiftly negotiated around both Williams drivers on the opening lap to make up for more qualifying frustration. He ran a long middle stint to make up the ground well.

The Williams drivers of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished fifth and sixth, a minute behind the leaders before the safety car’s intervention. The points winners were rounded off by Lotus’ Romain Grosjean, scoring his first points of the season, with the Sauber’s of Felipe Nasr in eighth and Marcus Ericsson sandwiching Daniel Ricciardo in his Red Bull – he made decent progress after a terrible start plunged him down to 17th,

Some drama came from the other Lotus of Pastor Maldonado, who passed Grosjean in the first pit stops, then ran down the pit lane entry escape road in his second visit. He also spun while trying to make amends for this error, ending up battling with the McLaren’s of Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso. Button ended up hitting the back of Maldonado in the battle, ending the Lotus’s race. Still, it was the first time this season that both McLaren drivers have completed a race.

2015 Chinese Grand Prix Result