Lewis Hamilton takes his second consecutive win of the season in China

Lewis Hamilton takes his second consecutive win of the season in China

Shanghai International Circuit by www.grahamandleigh.co.uk

This morning in Shanghai, Lewis Hamilton gained his second win of the season and his second consecutive victory in Shanghai ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel.

The race was eagerly anticipated after Lewis Hamilton sweeped the timesheets in all of the practice sessions and gained Pole Position yesterday with the Ferrari drivers of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen looking very handy behind them and also the Williams drivers of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas looking to close the gap this weekend to their two rivals.

At the start of the race, Hamilton got off to a great start and kept the lead of the race.

Sebastian Vettel also had a great start and was able to pass Felipe Massa for position who lost out to Valtteri Bottas in the first few corners but was able to repass his team mate at Turn 6.

Both the Sauber drivers of Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson got great starts while Max Verstappen also had a great start and managed to pass Daniil Kvyat for track position and at Turn 14, Kvyat lost another place in the race as Nico Hulkenberg was able to pass him on the circuit.

At the start of the second lap, Carlos Sainz Jr spun going into Turn 1 and instructed the Toro Rosso team not to talk to him through the corners. There were battles in the first half of the race between Pastor Maldonado with Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr, Daniel Ricciardo with Fernando Alonso and Kvyat (with Kvyat holding his team mate up for a few laps before letting him through), Max Verstappen and Ericsson and also Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz Jr.

We did also see in the second half of the race battles between Jenson Button and Pastor Maldonado who going into Turn 1 on Lap 48 made contact with each other but both drivers were able to continue. We also saw Marcus Ericsson and Daniel Ricciardo battling each other for the final point of the race, with Ricciardo getting the better of the Swedish driver.

Lap 10 saw Nico Hulkenberg retiring from the race with gearbox problems Danill Kvyat retiring six laps later when his Renault engine in his RB11 let go and on Lap 54, Pastor Maldonado also retired from the race due to the brake damage sustained on his car with the incident with Jenson Button, Max Verstappen retiring when his Renault engine let go too which brought out the Safety Car that the drivers finished the race under.

But it was Lewis Hamilton that won his second race of the season and at the Shanghai circuit and extended his championship lead ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg who finished in second place 0.7 seconds behind him. But he finished ahead of Sebastian Vettel in third place who was 2.9 seconds behind the two Mercedes drivers.

Kimi Raikkonen finished the race with a great peformance in fourth place ahead the Williams drivers of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas who finished fifth and sixth in a weekend where many expected them to put up more of a challenge to the Ferrari and Mercedes drivers.

Romain Grosjean scored his first points of the season for Lotus with a seventh place finish ahead of Felipe Nasr who finished in eighth place, Daniel Ricciardo who had a miserable weekend and did a great job to finish in ninth place and Marcus Ericsson who battled to get the final point in tenth place but one lap down on Hamilton.

Sergio Perez had a miserable weekend after struggling to extract the pace from his Force India to finish one lap down in eleventh place ahead of Fernando Alonso in twelfth place who finished ahead of his team mate Jenson Button in thirteenth place and Carlos Sainz Jr in fourteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Roberto Merhi finished in fifteenth place ahead of his team mate Will Stevens in sixteenth place two laps down from the leaders. Max Verstappen finished the race in seventeenth place despite retiring due to engine failure. Pastor Maldonado, Danill Kvyat and Nico Hulkenberg did not finish the race.

The classification of the Chinese GP is as follows:-

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.39.42.008
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 0.714s
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 2.988s
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 3.835s
5. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 8.544s
6. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 9.885s
7. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 19.008s
8. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 22.625s
9. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 32.117s
10. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
11. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1 lap
12. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
13. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
14. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1 lap
15. Will Stevens, Manor-Marussia, 2 laps
16. Roberto Merhi, Manor-Marussia, 2 laps
17. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 4 laps
18. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, Not Classified
19. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull-Renault, Not classified
20. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, Not classified

Lewis Hamilton leads the 2015 Driver's championship with 68 points, Vettel is second with 55 points, Rosberg is third with 51 points, Massa is fourth with 30 points, Raikkonen is fifth with 24 points, Bottas is sixth with 18 points, Nasr is seventh with 14 points, Ricciardo is eighth with 11 points, Grosjean is ninth with 6 points and Hulkenberg is tenth with 6 points.

Mercedes lead the 2015 Constructor Championship with 119 points, Ferrari is second with 79 points, Williams is third with 48 points, Sauber is fourth with 19 points, Red Bull is fifth with 13 points, Toro Rosso is sixth with 12 points and Force India are seventh with 7 points and Lotus are eighth with 6 points.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa