F1: Hamilton wins in China

It is business as usual for the Silver Arrows, with Lewis Hamilton taking the race win, and Nico Rosberg making it a 1-2. With the increased pace of the Ferrari, things hotted up within the Mercedes team, with Rosberg believing that Hamilton was trying to back him up into the Ferraris, which would seriously compromise his strategy. Although Vettel had a decent start, it was nothing compared to that of his teammate Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn had a brilliant start, which gave him enough momentum to take both the Williams into turn 6 on the first lap. Raikkonen stretched out his first 2 stints on the faster option rubber, at the expense of dropping back from his 3rd placed teammate. Ferrari’s strategy was to stop Raikkonen later, so he could have a chance at charging at Vettel at the end with fresher rubber. Unfortunately for him, Verstappen’s late retirement triggered a safety car, which left Kimi with no chance of passing Vettel as the race finished behind the safety car. The Williams duo started off the weekend with high hopes. They believed they had the pace to match the Ferrari. However, as the weekend went on, it was evident that the prancing horse had more in reserve than the cars of the Grove-based team. Apart from Massa capitalising on a slow Bottas at turn 6(this was when and where Raikkonen got pass Bottas and Massa), it was a pretty uneventful drive for them, finishing 5th and 6th, far behind the Ferrari, but far ahead of the 7th place Lotus of Roman Grosjean.

OneShift Editorial Team

13 Apr 2015

As previously mentioned, the Lotus machine of Roman Grosjean flew past the checkered flag in P7. Due to mechanical woes and/or sheer bad luck, neither of the Lotus drivers have scored a point in 2015 – up till the Chinese Grand Prix. Pastor Maldonado was in the points for most of the race, until a braking mistake at the pit entry relegated him right back down the pack. Maldonado spent the rest of the race battling with the 2 McLaren Hondas, before Button accidentally crashed into the back of him after misjudging the gap. Maldonado retired with a mechanical issue.

The Sauber duo finished in the points, with Nasr 8th, and Ericsson 10th. Both drivers had their fair share of track battles and both looked vulnerable to finishing outside of the points at one stage. Towards the end, Perez looked like a threat to Ericsson, but as the race finished under the safety car, Ericsson managed to keep his 10th place. This also marks the first time both Sauber cars entered Q3 since Austin in 2013.

The first of the Red Bull backed cars finished 9th. Daniel Ricciardo, which spent most of the race battling Marcus Ericsson, made a few braking mistakes whilst trying to get past the Sauber, losing him loads of precious time. His race started poorly as well, with his RB11 getting into anti-stall at the start of the race, meaning he had to re-engage the clutch and reinitiate the start procedure, which turned P8 on the grid to P18. The other Red Bull of Danii Kyvat failed to finish, after his engine gave up the ghost early on in the race.

Now onto the Force Indias. Hulkenburg retired early on, and Perez finished 11th. The update pack failed to give the Force Indias any extra speed, and the trend is set to continue until the team introduces the VJM08B in the first of the European rounds.

Great news for McLaren Honda, as both cars finished for the first time, with Alonso 12th and Button 14th. Button tangled with Maldonado late in the race, but other than that, the MP4-30 looks to be a lot more promising since it was first introduced in winter testing.

Carlos Sainz finished 13th for Toro Rosso, after an early spin. Verstappen retired with an engine failure late in the race, negating the deployment of a safety car.

Both Manor Marussias finished the race.

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