Hat trick for Hamilton as he wins Chinese GP

The Chinese Grand Prix on April 20, 2014 saw the dream run continue for the Mercedes AMG Petronas drivers as Lewis Hamilton came first followed at a distance by his teammate Nico Roseberg. Hamilton pipped his teammate by over 20s. Hamilton thus wins three races in a row.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari finally saw a podium finish as he came in third. Red Bull Racing-Renault drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Sebatian Vettel came fourth and fifth respectively.

For Force India-Mercedes it was a sixth slot as Nico Hulkenberg finished behind Vettel. Nico’s teammate Sergio Perez came in ninth. Both the Fore India-Mercedes drivers earned themselves points in the race. Vettel was again asked by the team to let Ricciardo pass through mid way into the race but refused to let him through. But after a couple of laps Ricciardo gets past at turn 1 after Vettel runs wide as he was notified that they were on different pit stop strategies.

Though Valtteri Bottas’ Williams-Mercedes had collided with Rosberg on lap 1 he came on to finish 7th. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari started 11 after a bad qualifying leaving him only to finish 8th gaining 4 points for Ferrari. Daniel Kvyat of STR-Renault scored the final point of the race finishing 10^th.Both Mclaren drivers Button and Magnussen failed to finish in the points and ended up classifying 11^th and 13^th respectively with the other STR-Renault driver Jean-Eric Vergne splitting them in 12^thplace.

Pastor Maldonado of Lotus Renault started the race from the back of the grid after facing mechanical problems with his engine in FP3 causing him to miss qualifying and starting from the back of the grid. Whether his 5 place grid penalty will carry forward to the next race is still to be seen. Maldonado finished the race in 14^th.

Alosno had contact with Massa’s Williams on the first lap after both of them had a really good start to the 1st corner. Massa’s race was ruined with a delayed pit stop of 1 minute with rear tyre hub issues due to the collision leaving him to finish 15^th.

Sauber’s Adrian Sutil was the first to retire, on lap 6 due to powertrain issues even after the mechanics tries to rectify the problem in the garage. This was Sutil’s 3^rd retirement in a row this season. Romain Grosjean brought his Lotus into retirement on lap 29 after having gearbox problems losing 4^th gear.

Despite Hamiltons three wins, Roseberg leads the Driver’s Championship with 79 points followed by Hamilton with 75 and Alonso in 3^rd with 41. In the Constructor’s title, Mercedes still lead with 154 points ahead of Redbull with 57 points and Force India racing with 54.

Picture of Lewis Hamilton courtesy Daimler