Chinese GP 2015: Hamilton wins, Rosberg criticises his pace

After the defeat in Malaysia, Mercedes hit back at the 2015 Chinese GP. Lewis Hamilton won from pole position at the Shanghai International Circuit and also set the fastest lap. Behind him, Nico Rosberg completed a one-two for Mercedes, while Sebastian Vettel finished third for Ferrari.

Hamilton gave up the lead only briefly during the pit stops. So the main talking point was not the fight for victory but Rosberg's radio messages. He accused his team-mate of driving too slowly and leaving him exposed to the Ferraris. It was Hamilton's second win of the season and his fourth victory in Shanghai (formula1.com).

Nothing changed at the front at the start, with Hamilton leading Rosberg and Vettel into the first corner. Behind them, things were far more chaotic. Kimi Räikkönen had started only from grid position six, but on the opening lap he picked off both Williams cars of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas to run fourth.

Daniel Ricciardo had a nightmare start in the Red Bull. He barely got off the line from grid position seven and, according to grandprix.com, dropped as far back as 17th. Early on, Carlos Sainz also spun in the Toro Rosso and had to work his way forward again from the very back.

Pirelli had brought the medium and soft compounds to Shanghai. In the first round of stops, Ferrari put Mercedes under pressure: Vettel, running third, pitted as early as lap 13 to try to pass Rosberg with the undercut. Mercedes brought Hamilton in a lap later and then pitted Rosberg. The plan worked and Rosberg stayed ahead of Vettel. During the stops, Rosberg led the race for two laps from lap 14, and from lap 16 Hamilton was back in front.

That did not settle matters, though. According to Wikipedia, Ferrari had one more fresh set of tyres left over from qualifying, so Mercedes had to be careful with their tyres. None of the leading drivers was caught out at the second stops either. Vettel stopped on lap 30, Rosberg on lap 31 and Hamilton on lap 33. Because Räikkönen stayed out, he led for one lap from lap 34 before he too came in. From lap 35 Hamilton was back in front, and he stayed there until the flag.

Räikkönen's strategy still almost paid off. On tyres four laps younger than Vettel's, he closed in fast in the closing stages. According to formula1.com, the gap had shrunk to around 1.3 seconds when the Safety Car ended the chase.

In the middle phase of the race, Rosberg radioed his team to say that Hamilton was driving very slowly and that they should tell him to speed up. The problem was that, running behind Hamilton, Rosberg was wearing out his tyres faster and could not get close enough. At the same time, the Ferraris were closing in from behind. The team then asked Hamilton to go faster.

After the race, Rosberg went further, accusing Hamilton of deliberately backing off in the middle stint and thinking only of himself. Hamilton rejected this: “I wasn't controlling his race, I was controlling my own race.” (quoted by Wikipedia). Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda took Hamilton's side, saying that all racing drivers are egoists. Rosberg had already criticised his team after qualifying for putting him under pressure on his final out-lap.

In total, four drivers did not see the chequered flag:

• Nico Hülkenberg (Force India) was the first to retire, with a gearbox failure after 9 laps.
• Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull) retired after 15 laps with a power unit failure. His car was smoking as he pulled off the track.
• Pastor Maldonado (Lotus F1) had a chaotic afternoon. At his second stop on lap 33, he missed the pit entry and lost several places. Later, Jenson Button (McLaren) ran into the back of him under braking for the first corner, and Maldonado spun. His race ended after 49 laps, officially because of a brake problem. The stewards blamed Button, who was given a five-second time penalty after the race and two penalty points, which dropped him from 13th to 14th place (formula1.com).
• Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso) drove a strong race and was in the points when a technical failure stopped him shortly before the end. After 52 laps he came to a halt on the start/finish straight with a drivetrain failure. Because he had completed more than 90 per cent of the distance, he was still classified 17th.

Verstappen's car was difficult to recover, so the field ran the final laps to the finish behind the Safety Car. Hamilton described the ending as “kind of an anti-climax” (quoted by Wikipedia). Roberto Merhi (Manor Marussia) received a five-second penalty for going below the required minimum time under the Safety Car.

Winners:

• Fernando Alonso: According to the results, Fernando Alonso made up the most places. He went from grid position 18 to twelfth and also finished ahead of team-mate Button. Even so, McLaren-Honda were still on zero points after three races.
• Kimi Räikkönen: He climbed from grid position six to fourth and made life difficult for Vettel at the end.
• Romain Grosjean: Romain Grosjean went from grid position eight to seventh, scoring Lotus's first points of the year.
• Felipe Nasr: After failing to score in Malaysia, Felipe Nasr was back in the points in eighth. Marcus Ericsson added another point for Sauber in tenth.
• Sergio Pérez (11th place after three stops) and the Manor drivers Will Stevens and Merhi each gained four places.

Losers:

• Maldonado and Kvyat: Both retired and, on paper, lost seven places each.
• Verstappen: Retiring shortly before the finish cost him points that had looked certain.
• Williams: Massa and Bottas finished fifth and sixth. This time they were no match for Ferrari.
• Ricciardo: After his botched start, he fought back but could only finish ninth.

In the 2015 standings, Hamilton extended his lead. He now had 68 points, ahead of Vettel on 55 and Rosberg on 51. Massa (30) and Räikkönen (24) followed. In the constructors' standings, Mercedes led with 119 points ahead of Ferrari (79) and Williams (48).

After Vettel's surprise win at the Malaysian GP, Shanghai confirmed the balance of power. Mercedes were back on top, but Ferrari were much closer than the year before. The row between Rosberg and Hamilton also showed that the duel between the two Silver Arrows drivers would shape the 2015 season too.