adminSHANGHAI – Team Mercedes is leading the standings with its dominant 1-2 finish from the 2014 Chinese Formula 1 GP on Sunday with Lewis Hamilton taking his third win in a row and team mate Nico Rosberg in second.
Hamilton made sure he held on to pole as he dashed off the start line to stay ahead of the Red Bull duo of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel and kept his lead right to the end.
And it looked as if he hardly had to fight for it as he did during the 2014 Malaysia and Bahrain GP. It was also his third win in China – the others were in in 2008 and 2011.
There was quite a bit of car contact during the first lap but there were no serious incidents or reported damage.
For a moment it looked as if the reigning champion was back to his dominant self as he held second for a while, fighting off Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso who finished third.
The race started with everybody on fresh softs except for McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen who chose the harder prime tyres. After wet qualifying on Saturday the racers faced a dry, two-stop, 56-lap race.
It was refreshing to see McLaren’s Jenson Button fighting at the front of the field after a dismal 2013 in which he was too often among the tail-enders.
Alonso, winner of the 2013 Chinese GP, kept up his dominance in second and steadily crept up to Hamilton with only 5.8sec between them early in the race but by the end the gap grew to 18.6sec. — Wheels 24
Online Reporter