Nico Rosberg avoided the early drama to win his sixth successive Formula One race with a dominant display at the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday.
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Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari and Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull rounded off the podium, with the young Russian driver scoring the second ever podium of his career, the first coming at the Hungarian Grand Prix of 2015, where Kvyat finished in second ahead of teammate Daniel Ricciardo.
Rosberg was briefly headed by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo from the start, but the Australian was another driver to suffer cruel luck, as his left rear tire punctured with debris flying on to the track.
Hamilton then negotiated the slower cars easily, but Felipe Massa was proving an altogether different animal in the Williams, allowing both Ricciardo and Raikkonen to pass the limping Briton.
The race was shaped by an incident-packed opening, with a number of collisions on the first lap leading to the introduction of the safety vehicle on lap four.
Rosberg started on pole position and led almost the entire race by a wide margin to extend his flawless start to the season with a third consecutive win – and his sixth straight dating back to last season. “I’ll just have to do what I can to make it up over the next few races”.
The Mercedes driver has somewhat dominated the season, winning each of the three races in a commanding fashion.
Unable to set a time, Hamilton will line up 22nd and last, electing for a grid start rather than from the pitlane, with teammate Nico Rosberg on pole. But, just like the Ferrari’s, Ricciardo worked his way through to finish a respectable fourth. The Mercedes team boss confirmed that the front wing was damaging the bargeboard and floor of Hamilton’s vehicle, severely affecting the aerodynamics.
Nevertheless, Hamilton still made 18 overtakes today.
“Every time I did a stop I was having to come back through again and I wasn’t really gaining a lot of ground”, Hamilton, who stopped five times during yesterday’s race, said.
He now trails him by 36 points in the World Championship.
The win marked the tenth time a driver has won the opening three races of a season, with the previous nine all going on to claim the world championship. His seventh-place finish in Shanghai is also his worst performance in a race that he’s completed since the Brazilian Grand Prix at the end of 2013. “But I can take some positives from the race: I got a good start, finally – from dead last”. I haven’t got an incredible feeling but I have the utmost confidence in this team and we will recover from this at some point.
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Hamilton, facing the media, continued: “There’s a long, long way to go”.
