Lewis Hamilton wins his first race of the season at the action-packed Chinese GP

At the Chinese GP yesterday, Lewis Hamilton his first reace of the season ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen in a race that was full of incident and excitement thanks to the weather.

The race started in damp conditions and early stops for soft tyres, plus Virtual Safety Car and Safety Car periods, which then caused several different pit strategies to unfold.

All the cars bar Carlos Sainz’s Toro Rosso started on intermediate tyres, but the track was drying quickly making slicks a viable alternative as early as lap two. The decision was made for the majority of drivers when the Virtual Safety Car was deployed to allow the safe removal of Lance Stroll’s Williams, which had collided with Sergio Perez in the second sector of the first lap and lay stationary with broken suspension in the run off of Turn 10.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was among the cars that pitted and sacrificed second place on the road in the hope of gaining an advantage when normal racing resumed at the Shanghai circuit. With the race leader Lewis Hamilton opting not to pit along with teammate Valtteri Bottas in third, Daniel Ricciardo in fourth, Kimi Raikkonen in fifth and Max Verstappen,
who, after his remarkable first lap, was already up to seventh.

Vettel’s early stop might have paid off had it not been for Antonio Giovinazzi losing the rear of his Sauber on a wet patch under one of Shanghai’s giant bridges on the pit straight. That resulting safety car offered an even better opportunity to swap to slicks and Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Verstappen took full advantage of the situation.

Bottas then fell back to fifth after being stacked behind Hamilton in the pits, promoting Ricciardo to second, Raikkonen to third and Verstappen to fourth, with Vettel remaining in sixth. All the drivers then faced the challenge of keeping their new slick tyres up to temperature behind the slow-moving safety car, but as Bottas warmed his Pirellis his Mercedes swapped ends at slow speeds and dropped him to twelfth place ahead of the restart.

Normal racing resumed on lap eight with Hamilton retaining his lead and Verstappen finding a way past Raikkonen on the inside of Turn 6 for third place. Two laps later saw 3.2 seconds covering the top five drivers and the battle for position was heating up.

Verstappen (who by that point had already made up 13 positions from his grid position) looked to be closest to the pace of the lead Mercedes but was held up behind his Red Bull teammate Ricciardo. On lap 11, Verstappen barged past Ricciardo on the inside at Turn 6 with a stunning move to take second place and an opportunity to put pressure on Hamilton for the lead of the race.

Ricciardo (who was complaining of understeer at the time) then started to hold up the two Ferraris with Raikkonen unable to find a way past while Vettel got frustrated behind his teammate in sixth. Raikkonen appeared to be in no mood to play the team game and with no orders coming from the pit wall, Vettel had to dive up the inside of Turn 6 to assert his authority as the quicker Ferrari driver on Lap 20.

Vettel then needed to pass his old teammate Ricciardo and that’s when the fun really started. The Red Bull driver was wise to the Turn 6 opportunity and on Lap 22 blocked the inside line as Vettel came up behind. Undeterred, Vettel took to the outside of the corner and hung on to the left-hand side of Ricciardo as they exited the corner.

However Ricciardo had no intention of making it easy for Vettel and as they approached the high-speed Turn 7, the pair touched wheels producing a puff of blue tyre smoke. The contact wiped the writing off the sidewalls of the two drivers’ tyres, but Vettel emerged in the lead and both cars avoided any serious damage in the incident.

Vettel on soft tyres quickly set about closing in on Verstappen on super-softs, who by that time was unable to live with the pace of Hamilton. By Lap 27 the gap between second and third had reduced to a second and on the following lap Vettel lined up a move on the Red Bull at Turn 14. However, as he did so Verstappen lost his cool, locked his front left tyre and continued straight on, gifting the position to Vettel without a fight.

The mistake then damaged Verstappen’s tyre and two laps later he pitted for a replacement set of super-softs, triggering the second pit window. Ricciardo pitted on Lap 33 before Vettel on Lap 34 and Hamilton two laps after that. Hamilton retained his lead in the process and returned to the track in the lead in front of Raikkonen’s Ferrari, which had not yet pitted.

Fernando Alonso had been running seventh with a chance of points for much of his race, but suffered a driveshaft failure on lap 32 just after he was passed by Sainz for position on track. It brought to an end an impressive weekend in which the two-time world champion outclassed his machinery by a significant margin.

At that point of the race, Ferrari seemed keen to keep Raikkonen out on the same set of tyres until the end of the race. But after a series of increasingly heated radio messages from driver to pit wall he pitted on Lap 39 and briefly dropped behind Sainz’s Toro Rosso before moving back up to fifth where he finished the race.

At the front Vettel started to pump in some quick laps but Hamilton was able to match the Ferrari’s advances with similar times and held the gap as they crossed the line. Meanwhile, there was a much closer battle brewing for third as Ricciardo closed in on the rear wing of teammate Verstappen.

On the last lap Ricciardo attempted moves at Turn 6 and Turn 14 but on both occasions Verstappen had an answer and just about kept him at bay to finish a remarkable drive from the back of the grid to the podium.

But it was Lewis Hamilton who won his first victory of the 2017 season at the Chinese GP.Hamilton finished ahead of Sebastian Vettel in second place who was 6.250 seconds behind him and ahead of Max Verstappen in third place who was 45.192 seconds behind Hamilton.

Daniel Ricciardo finished the race fourth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in fifth place, Valtteri Bottas in a brilliant sixth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in seventh place, Kevin Magnussen in eighth place, Sergio Perez in ninth place and Esteban Ocon who rounded off the top ten finishers of the race.

Romain Grosjean finished the Chinese GP in eleventh place ahead Nico Hulkenberg in twelfth place, Jolyon Palmer in thirteenth place, Felipe Massa in fourteenth place and Marcus Ericsson in fifteenth place.

Fernando Alonso, Danill Kvyat, Stoffel Vandoorne, Antonio Giovinazzi and Lance Stroll did not finish the race.

The classification of the Chinese GP is as follows:-

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.37:36.158s
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 6.250s
3. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 45.192s
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 46.035s
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 48.076s
6. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 48.808s
7. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.12.893s
8. Kevin Magnussen, Haas Ferrari, 1 lap
9. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1 lap
10. Esteban Ocon, Force India-Mercedes, 1 lap
11. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1 lap
12. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 1 lap
13. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1 lap
14. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1 lap
15. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
16. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, Not Classified
17. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, Not Classified
18. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren-Honda, Not Classified
19. Antonio Giovinazzi, Sauber-Ferrari, Not Classified
20. Lance Stroll, Williams-Mercedes, Not Classified

Sebastian Vettel leads the 2017 Formula One Drivers Championship with 43 points, Lewis Hamilton also with 43 points, Max Verstappen is third with 25 points, Valtteri Bottas is fourth with 23 points, Kimi Raikkonen is fifth with 22 points, Daniel Ricciardo is sixth with 12 points, Carlos Sainz Jr is seventh with 10 points, Felipe Massa is eighth with 8 points, Sergio Perez is ninth with 8 points, Kevin Magnussen is tenth with 4 points, Daniil Kvyat is eleventh with 2 points and Esteban Ocon is twelfth with 2 points.

Mercedes leads the Constructors Championship with 66 points, Ferrari are second with 65 points, Red Bull is third with 37 points, Toro Rosso are fourth with 12 points, Force India are fifth with 10 points, Williams are sixth with 8 points and Haas are seventh with 4 points.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa