Lewis Hamilton produced a flawless drive from start to finish as the Briton won a processional Chinese Grand Prix in style ahead of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas with the Silver Arrows scoring a third consecutive one-two finish in 2019.

 

 

Hamilton got off the line perfectly and slipped ahead of pole-sitter Bottas into the first corner, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc got by team-mate Sebastian Vettel for third.

 

The midfield battle intensified into the turn six hairpin as Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat caught a twitch of his STR14 racer and bounced off Carlos Sainz’ McLaren and then clipping wheels with the Spaniard’s team-mate Lando Norris, who was sent for a brief moment in the air.

 

This temporarily brought out the Virtual Safety Car so the debris including part of Sainz’ front wing could be cleared.

 

Hamilton was breezing away at half a second per lap in the first phase of the Grand Prix whilst the majority of the frontrunners behind were conserving their tyres – except for Ferrari’s Vettel, who was looking to pass team-mate Leclerc with the latter being told to push harder or let the German by.

 

The Scuderia made the order just before the beginning of lap 11 as Leclerc slowed down to let Vettel past.

 

Despite the swap, Vettel was starting to close the gap to second-placed Bottas and slightly race-leader Hamilton, even though he was pushing his SF90 racer to its limits – even locking up his front-left and running wide at the turn 14 hairpin on the thirteenth lap. Leclerc also reported on the radio that he was now being held up.

 

As the Silver Arrows charged into the distance, fifth-placed Max Verstappen joined in the battle for the final podium place by pitting for the C2 white-branded hard compounds on lap 18.

 

This caused Ferrari to react and Vettel pitted a lap later to cover the undercut from the Milton-Keynes based-outfit, with the German emerging narrowly in-front of Verstappen on his fresh set of hards.

 

Verstappen made a late lunge with DRS assistance on Vettel at the turn fourteen hairpin but ran slightly wide as the two went wheel-to-wheel with Vettel pushing the Dutchman onto the grass at the exit to reclaim what was fourth place.

 

Ferrari committed to a long stint strategy for Leclerc, since the young Monegasque driver would end up behind this battle – and when he pitted five laps later then team-mate Vettel for fresh hard tyres, he emerged 11 seconds off of Verstappen.

 

Bottas came in for hards on lap 22, followed by Hamilton a lap later as the reigning World Champion left the pit-lane, the gap between the two Silver Arrows was less than 1.5 seconds.

 

But Hamilton continued to press and built more than five-second lead to his team-mate, and within those ten laps he asked over the radio if Bottas had posted the fastest lap for the extra bonus point.

 

Red Bull once again triggered the second round of pit-stops, bringing in Verstappen with 20 laps remaining for fresh mediums. Ferrari followed suit and pitted Vettel a lap later for the same compound with the domino-effect continuing a lap later as Mercedes double-stacked Hamilton and Bottas for mediums as well.

 

This meant Bottas returned to the track behind Leclerc – who was running out of sequence and had to battle the Ferrari driver.

 

For nearly two laps, Leclerc continued to keep the Finn at bay until the latter made a DRS-assisted move on the Ferrari into the turn 14 hairpin and made the move stick.

 

Once ahead, Bottas charged away as Leclerc fell into the grasps of his team-mate Vettel. Ferrari brought Leclerc in on lap 42 and came out slow of the box, leaving pit-lane over 15 seconds behind Verstappen’s Red Bull.

 

Though Leclerc was eating into the Dutchman’s time, he reported of a gearbox issue on the radio, but the team reassured him that there was none – and Verstappen remained a comfortable distance in-front.

 

Hamilton crossed the line to win the 1000^th Grand Prix and the Chinese GP for the sixth time ahead of team-mate Bottas with Vettel completing the podium as Verstappen and Leclerc rounded out the top five.

 

The other Red Bull of Pierre Gasly was running a quiet sixth place, despite running close behind his team-mate in the opening stages of the race but it was a long stretch to put the Frenchman on the red-branded softer rubber for 19 laps.

 

By the time Gasly came in, he was well behind the two Ferrari’s. With two laps remaining, Gasly was in more than enough space to come in for a set of softs to push for the fastest lap point.

 

The Frenchman set two personal bests in the first two sectors before going purple in the final to clinch the bonus point.

 

Renault ran two different strategies for both Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg with the latter being brought in to swap softs for hards on lap twelve and leaving the former out for a long first stint on the softs. Hulkenberg’s day ended early as he retired from the race five laps later.

 

Ricciardo also had a quiet run to the line finishing seventh scoring his first points of the season and finished ahead of Racing Point’s Sergio Perez who was eighth and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen who was ninth.

 

Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon after starting from the pit-lane due to a heavy late FP3 crash yesterday, was lucky to hold onto the final points place by a fast-pushing Haas of Romain Grosjean who settled for 11^th.

 

Racing Point’s Lance Stroll finished the race in 12^th and in-front of the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen who was 13^th and the aforementioned McLaren of Sainz who took 14^th.

 

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi continued to struggle as he wound up 15^th and ahead of both ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica were brought up the rear and two laps down.

 

Along with Hulkenberg, both Kvyat and Norris were both forced to retire.

 

The Top Three

 

Winner: Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “It’s not been the most straightforward of weekends, but what a fantastic result for the team,” explained Hamilton. “We came here, didn’t know where we’d stand. To get a one-two together was really special in the 1000th GP.”

 

Second: Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “I think I lost it at the start,” says Bottas. “I got some wheelspin when I went over the [start/finish] line.”

 

Third: Sebastian Vettel, #5, Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow, SF90: “I’m happy to be on the podium, but [the race was] tough because we tried to stick with them but just couldn’t,” said Vettel.

 

Formula 1 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix 2019 Race Results Classification (56 Laps)

 

POS	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	GAP
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	56	1h32m06.350s
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	56	6.552s
3	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	56	13.744s
4	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	56	27.627s
5	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari	56	31.276s
6	Pierre Gasly	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	56	1m29.307s
7	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team	55	1 Lap
8	Sergio Perez	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	55	1 Lap
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo Racing	55	1 Lap
10	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Toro Rosso-Honda	55	1 Lap
11	Romain Grosjean	Rich Energy Haas F1 Team	55	1 Lap
12	Lance Stroll	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	55	1 Lap
13	Kevin Magnussen	Rich Energy Haas F1 Team	55	1 Lap
14	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	55	1 Lap
15	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing	55	1 Lap
16	George Russell	ROKiT Williams Racing	54	2 Laps
17	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing	54	2 Laps
18	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	50	Not running
–	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Toro Rosso-Honda	41	Retirement
–	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault F1 Team	16	Retirement

 

 

Formula 1 2019 World Driver’s Championship Standings – Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton – 68 Points.
2. Valtteri Bottas – 62 Points.
3. Max Verstappen – 39 Points.
4. Sebastian Vettel – 37 Points.
5. Charles Leclerc – 36 Points.
6. Pierre Gasly – 13 Points.
7. Kimi Raikkonen – 12 Points.
8. Lando Norris – 8 Points.
9. Kevin Magnussen – 8 Points.
10. Nico Hulkenberg – 6 Points.

 

Formula 1 2019 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 130 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 73 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda – 52 Points.
4. Renault F1 Team – 12 Points.
5. Alfa Romeo Racing – 12 Points.
6. Rich Energy Haas F1 Team – 8 Points.
7. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 8 Points.
8. SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team – 7 Points.
9. Red Bull Toro Rosso-Honda – 4 Points.
10. ROKiT Williams Racing – 0 Points.

 

Round four of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Baku Street Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan for the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2019 from April 26-28.