Lewis Hamilton led the Chinese Grand Prix from start to finish to take his first win of the 2017 season. Behind him, mixed track conditions and limited practice running led to a crazy race to remind fans just what Formula One can be like.
Drivers were greeted with a damp track as they arrived at the Shanghai circuit this morning. Rain ahead of the race had cleared up, but the track was still drying. Most drivers decided against taking the risk and started the race on intermediate tyres.
Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz was the only driver to start on slick tyres and, though the formation lap proved most of the track was dry, the Spaniard had a difficult start off of the line, falling to the back of the field as he tried to manage the damp start/finish straight.
That didn’t mean none of the intermediate running drivers ran into trouble. In the middle of the field, Force India’s Sergio Perez and Williams’ Lance Stroll made contact, sending Stroll into the gravel. Neither driver was penalised for the incident, but Stroll’s stranded Williams led to a Virtual Safety Car.
A number of drivers, including Sebastian Vettel, pitted for slick tyres during the Virtual Safety Car, but not leader Hamilton.
There was little chance to see if the track was ready for slick tyres after the green flags returned, as almost as soon as the green flags returned, Antonio Giovinazzi crashed on the start finish straight. The Sauber driver collided with the pit wall, sending debris across the track.
The safety car was brought out, and cars were ordered to run through the pit lane so marshals could clear the remains of Giovinazzi’s Sauber.
This gave Hamilton, Raikkonen, Bottas, and Max Verstappen the perfect opportunity to switch to slick tyres without losing position.
Before the safety car could return to the pits, though, Bottas span, dropping him down the order and out of the lead battle.
When the green flags finally returned to the track, it was strategy that would define the rest of the race but, with no race simulations on Friday, nobody was quite sure just how long the tyres would last. Mercedes and Ferrari both opted for soft tyres with the aim of making it to the end of the race, whilst Red Bull put super-soft tyres on their cars.
Verstappen, who had started back in sixteenth, had enjoyed a fantastic start. Between some impressive overtaking and drivers ahead facing problems, the teenager had managed to make his way to fourth on the grid by the time the safety car returned to the pits. It didn’t take him long to find a way around the outside of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who appeared to have engine problem, to get up into third, behind Ricciardo and Hamilton.
Only a few laps later, he found his way past Ricciardo, and started to try and close the gap to Hamilton.
Vettel didn’t have such an easy task. The German was stuck behind his team-mate more than ten laps, finally finding a way past up the inside of turn six, a popular overtaking spot during the race. By this point, Ricciardo had managed to pull away from the battling Ferraris, but it didn’t take Vettel quite as long to close in on the Australian. The pair ran side by side, wheels touching for a moment as Vettel found his way past.
Now it was time for tyres to start to play their parts. Ferrari and Mercedes had both assumed the soft tyres would make it to the end of the race, but both Hamilton and Raikkonen were complaining about tyre wear, meaning pit stop strategies would come into play again.
Verstappen was the first front runner to pit after he locked up and flat spotted his supersoft tyres. The Dutchman emerged from the pits in sixth, undoing some of the work he had done in the first part of the race.
After the rest of the leaders pitted, Verstappen was the only driver to lose a position, dropping down to third whilst Vettel moved forward.
From that point on, there was no real fight for the top spot, with Hamilton building up a strong gap to Vettel and finishing the race over six seconds ahead of the German. The gap back to the third place battle was even bigger, with Verstappen nearly 40 seconds behind Vettel. Verstappen would argue that was down to Romain Grosjean.
Grosjean, running in eleventh, had already been lapped by Hamilton and Vettel when Verstappen came across him. The Red Bull driver had Ricciardo right on his tail, and being stuck in traffic wasn’t on his agenda. However, he wasn’t close enough to the back of the Haas for marshals to bring out the blue flags. Verstappen complained over the radio, saying that the turbulent air coming off of the back of the Haas was giving him understeer, but the blue flags didn’t come out.
Verstappen didn’t manage to come any closer to Grosjean and, with one eye on his team-mate in the mirrors, crossed the line in third. A fantastic race for the man who started sixteenth.
Raikkonen, Bottas, Sainz, Magnussen, Perez, and Ocon completed the top ten.
There were five retirements throughout the race. Besides Stroll and Giovinazzi, Stoffel Vandoorne, Daniil Kvyat, and Fernando Alonso all retired from the race.
It looked like a fantastic race for Alonso, who had been running in eighth before a fuel driveshaft problem forced him to retire.
Hamilton and Vettel leave China top of the championship, both with 43 points. Verstappen is third with 25 points, and Bottas fourth with 23. Mercedes once again lead the constructors’ championships, but only by a single point.
1- Lewis Hamilton – Mecredes
2- Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari
3- Max Verstappen – Red Bull
4- Daniel Ricciardo – Red Bull
5- Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari
6- Valtteri Bottas – Mercedes
7- Carlos Sainz – Toro Rosso
8- Kevin Magnussen – Haas
9- Sergio Perez- Force India
10- Esteban Ocon – Force India
11- Romain Grosjean – Haas
12- Nico Hulkenberg – Renault
13- Jolyon Palmer – Renault
14- Felipe Massa – Williams
15- Marcus Ericsson – Sauber
OUT – Fernando Alonso – McLaren
OUT – Daniil Kvyat – Toro Rosso
OUT – Stoffel Vandoorne – McLaren
OUT – Antonio Giovinazzi – Sauber
OUT – Lance Stroll - Williams