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Formula 1: Hamilton wins 2017 Chinese Grand Prix

Writer's picture: Andrew ZarbAndrew Zarb


Race 2 of the Formula 1 season saw a dominant victory by polesitter and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, to tie him with Sebastian Vettel in the World Championship.

The race started with all drivers other than Carlos Sainz start on the intermediate ("semi-wet") tyres; Sainz starting on the supersofts. At the end of the formation lap, Renault's Jolyon Palmer also pitted, to change onto supersoft tyres.

At the start of the race, Hamilton got away well. Vettel got a slightly slow start but managed to hold off Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas (of Mercedes) for second. Meanwhile, Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo managed to overtake Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen for fourth place.

On lap 1, however, Williams rookie Lance Stroll ended up stuck in the gravel after a collision with Force India driver Sergio Perez. This prompted a Virtual Safety Car and led to several drivers pitting for dry tyres, the most notable of them being Sebastian Vettel. He re-emerged in sixth place, but crucially Hamilton didn't.

The Virtual Safety Car period ended, and the drivers could go racing once again. However, on lap 4, Sauber driver Antonio Giovinazzi crashed on the start/finish straight, in a very similar crash to qualifying. He was on the soft tyres at that point. The drivers had to pass through the pitlane whilst they were clearing up the debris and the car from the crash. Giovinazzi was ok fortunately.

The Safety Car benefitted Hamilton massively as he pitted during this time, going onto the soft tyres. It also benefitted the Red Bull drivers, as at this point they were running second and fourth, with Ricciardo ahead of Max Verstappen who started from all the way down in 18th place on the grid. The order was: Hamilton, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Verstappen, Bottas, Vettel.

The Safety Car eventually went in at the end of lap 7. However, just before racing resumed, Valtteri Bottas made a critical mistake, spinning off and dropping down to 11th place from 5th. As soon as the Safety Car went in, Verstappen managed to overtake Raikkonen and move into 3rd place. A lap later he managed to overtake team-mate Daniel Ricciardo into second place. At this point the order was: Hamilton, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Vettel. Hamilton and Verstappen began to open up a slight gap at the front, but behind it was a train in which Ricciardo led Raikkonen who led from Vettel. On lap 17 McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne stopped with a car issue, and a lap later Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat also stopped with a car issue (it was a hydraulic failure).

Sebastian Vettel finally got past Kimi Raikkonen on lap 20, and 2 laps later got past former Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. Vettel then overtook Verstappen on lap 28 to move into second place, after he (Verstappen) made a mistake going into the hairpin on the main straight before the end of the lap. On lap 33 McLaren driver Fernando Alonso stopped as well with a car failure.

Another round of pit-stops began on lap 30, when Max Verstappen pitted for another set of supersoft tyres. Daniel Ricciardo then followed suit on lap 36 and re-emerged back in fifth place. Sebastian Vettel was the next one to pit and managed to come out ahead of Max Verstappen in third place. Hamilton also pitted and managed to re-emerge in the lead ahead of Raikkonen, who had not yet pitted. When Raikkonen pitted, he ended up behind Vettel, the two Red Bulls, and Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz. He managed to get past Sainz, but not the two Red Bulls. Valtteri Bottas for Mercedes managed to get past Sainz as well, finishing 6th in the process after his spin behind the safety car.

Hamilton was just dominant upfront, and won the race with a 6-second advantage over Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. Max Verstappen completed the podium slots, with team-mate Ricciardo finishing fourth. The rest of the points scoring positions was: Raikkonen, Bottas, Sainz, Kevin Magnussen of Haas, and the Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon.

Classification:

1st - Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes

2nd - Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari

3rd - Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer

4th - Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer

5th - Kimi Raikkoen - Ferrari

6th - Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes

7th - Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso

8th - Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari

9th - Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes

10th - Esteban Ocon - Force India-Mercedes

11th - Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari

12th - Nico Hulkenberg - Renault

13th - Jolyon Palmer - Renault

14th - Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes

15th - Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari

Fernando Alonso, Daniil Kvyat, Stoffel Vandoorne, Antonio Giovinazzi and Lance Stroll all failed to finish the race

World Championship standings:

Sebastian Vettel - 43 points

Lewis Hamilton - 43 points

Max Verstappen - 25 points

Valtteri Bottas - 23 points

Kimi Raikkonen - 22 points

Daniel Ricciardo - 12 points

Carlos Sainz - 10 points

Felipe Massa - 8 points

Sergio Perez - 8 points

Kevin Magnussen - 4 points

Daniil Kvyat - 2 points

Esteban Ocon - 2 points

Nico Hulkenberg - 0 points

Romain Grosjean - 0 points

Antonio Giovinazzi - 0 points

Stoffel Vandoorne - 0 points

Jolyon Palmer - 0 points

Marcus Ericsson - 0 points

Note: Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso are not classified as they have failed to finish a race.

Constructors' Championship standings:

Mercedes - 66 points

Ferrari - 65 points

Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer - 37 points

STR-Renault - 12 points

Force India-Mercedes - 10 points

Williams-Mercedes - 8 points

Haas-Ferrari - 4 points

Renault - 0 points

Sauber-Ferrari - 0 points

McLaren-Honda - 0 points

Speaking during the podium interviews, Hamilton said:

"It was incredible. Thanks to all of you. It's such a great crowd here in Shanghai. It was tough for all of us today. But it was a great job by my team and Sebastian and this dude (Verstappen).

"Big thanks to this team - my own staff and the team back in the factory. This race is so real and exciting and we were matching times so if there wasn't safety car as it would have been a lot closer."

"I think this will be one of the closest ones if not the closest I have experienced.

"Ferrari have done a great job and it is great that we are both pushing."

Runner-up Sebastian Vettel said:

"The safety car came just as I was about to start to feel the dry tyres were a lot quicker but then I had a very exciting race. I was stuck in the train for a little while but then tried to chase down Lewis Hamilton. It was a good match. It was good fun.

"My target was to catch Lewis, I was getting angry behind the train, I felt I could go faster in these conditions so I felt I had to try it on Daniel Ricciardo. On the exit I was a bit compromised, I had my elbows out, he really squeezed me, but good fun."

3rd-placed Max Verstappen said:

"It was a very challenging race but I really enjoyed it. I think I overtook nine cars in the opening lap so it was a very good race for me!

"I didn't have a lot of track time this weekend because didn't do much in qualifying so I wasn't expecting to finish on the podium having started in 16th.

"I was getting a little frustrated at the end as I wanted clear air to try and push harder but in the end I still finished on the podium so I can't complain!"


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