Lewis Hamilton won a chaotic Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai, crossing the line ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg under the control of the safety car.
Hamilton led from the start, and, despite his team sending terse radio messages telling him to increase his speed in the middle stages, he never looked likely to lose his advantage.
“It was really about controlling the gap between myself and Nico and saving the tyres for when I needed them,” said Hamilton, reflecting on his defence of his lead.
Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari finished in third, with his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen just behind him; both had pushed the Mercedes in the opening half of the race but after the second pit stops could not make up any more time.
“It was a good race, all in all – I think we were a bit closer on the compound tyres,” said Vettel. “On the harder tyres, they [Mercedes] were just that bit too quick.”
The Williamses of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas maintained their starting positions, taking fifth and sixth respectively.
It was another terrible weekend for the teams with Renault power – Red Bull’s Dany Kvyat and Max Verstappen of sister team Toro Rosso both withdrew with smoke pluming from their engines.
Verstappen pulled up two laps from the end, bringing the safety car out to usher the field to the end.
Lotus’s Pastor Maldonado had a very odd race, missing the turn for the pit lane and drifting wide into a spin, and then withdrawing a couple of laps from the end after a collision with McLaren’s Jenson Button.
Perhaps the happiest team this weekend will be Manor Marussia, with both their drivers finishing a race for the first time this year, Will Stevens in 15th and Roberto Mehri in 16th.
Results
1. Hamilton (Mercedes), 2. Rosberg (Mercedes), 3. Vettel (Ferrari), 4. Raikkonen (Ferrari), 5. Massa (Williams), 6. Bottas (Williams), 7. Grosjean (Lotus), 8. Nasr (Sauber), 9. Ricciardo (Red Bull), 10. Ericsson (Sauber).