Hamilton wins third straight F1 race
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton captured his third straight Formula One race with ease on Sunday, leading from start to finish to win the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
Mercedes showed again that it’s in a different class from its rivals, with Hamilton’s teammate Nico Rosberg taking second place – the third time in four races this season the pair have finished one-two.
“This is a team on a roll, that’s for sure,” Hamilton said. “I’m going to be working hard, we’re going to keep working hard because obviously the others are pushing to catch us.”
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso held off fast-charging Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo to finish third and give his team its first podium finish of the year, with new team principal Marco Mattiacci watching from the garage.
Ricciardo was fourth, finishing one place ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel after the four-time defending world champion was asked by his team to allow the faster Ricciardo to pass for the second race in a row.
Hamilton’s win gave him his first career hat trick following his victories in Malaysia and Bahrain. The Briton may have even had a fourth win this season but was forced to retire in the season-opener in Australia due to engine trouble after starting from the pole position.
With the win, he inched closer to his teammate’s lead in the drivers’ championship with 75 points, just four behind Rosberg.
Hamilton, who moved one ahead of Jim Clark for most poles by a British driver with the 34th of his career in Shanghai, was cruising so comfortably at the end of the race that he wasn’t even rattled when the checkered flag was mistakenly shown a lap too soon, at the end of lap 55.
“That was very strange. I was thinking, ‘Am I seeing things?’ I looked up, I was coming across the line expecting to do another lap and, all of a sudden, I looked for a split second and I saw the flag,” he said.
According to F1 regulations, if the checkered flag is shown early, the official end of the race will be the lap before it was shown. On Sunday, that meant the end of lap 54.
The only racers this affected were Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi and Marussia’s Jules Bianchi. Kobayashi had passed the Frenchman on their final lap for 17th place, but their places were reversed in the official results.
Hamilton was so far ahead for much of the race, his rivals were left to battle for second best.
Rosberg, expected to challenge Hamilton in Shanghai after the pair’s incredibly tight duel in Bahrain, started fourth.