Lewis Hamilton leads Mercedes one-two finish at Chinese Grand Prix

Hamilton never relinquishes the lead while teammate Nico Rosberg fights back from seventh place to finish second and Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso gets a podium place, writes Graham Caygill.

Lewis Hamilton got off to an ideal start in the Mercedes at the Chinese Grand Prix. Cliva Mason / Getty Images

No car other than the Mercedes-GP F1 W05 chassis has led a lap of a race in the 2014 Formula One season, such has been the domination by the German manufacturers in the opening three events of the campaign.

Lewis Hamilton maintained that sequence on Sunday as he dominated the Chinese Grand Prix, leading all 54 laps of the event in Shanghai.

It was already obviously apparent that Mercedes can lead from the front before yesterday, following the victories in Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain, but yesterday showed they can race hard and overtake easily when needed.

Nico Rosberg, Hamilton’s teammate, had started fourth, but had bogged down badly off the line and completed the first lap down in seventh place.

Victory hopes for the German were already gone as Hamilton, with a clear road in front of him in first place, began pulling away from the pack at unto a second a lap.

For Rosberg it was a case of damage limitation and trying to get Mercedes their third successive one-two finish.

He quickly cruised past the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and the Williams of Felipe Massa to move up to fifth.

Progress was briefly slowed as he struggled to get past Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull Racing car as his soft tyres began to go off and lose grip, but an earlier switch to the harder tyre at the first pit stops saw him leapfrog Ricciardo to be fourth.

He easily disposed of Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull on lap 24 to be third and he was now eight seconds adrift of Fernando Alonso in second.

He hauled that gap down to the Ferrari quickly and he completed his comeback by moving past the Spaniard on the long back straight on lap 42.

Hamilton was out of reach at the front, 15 seconds down the road by this stage, but Rosberg had made comfortable work of what should have been an arduous task of coming back through the field, ensuring that no car is yet to beat a Mercedes to the finish line this season when it has completed the race distance.

Unsurprisingly Hamilton was the happier of the two Mercedes men on the podium, post-race, as he celebrated winning three races in succession for the first time in his career.

The 2008 world champion said: “Honestly, I just can’t believe how amazing the car is … I had such a great race, really enjoyed it, particularly the last few laps.” Despite winning three of the four races thus far in the season, Hamilton is still trailing Rosberg in the championship standings, but the gap now down to four points, due to the Briton’s non-finish in Australia, Rosberg’s lone victory thus far.

Rosberg was satisfied with second given the technical problems that had given him a few headaches along the way.

“In the race we had no telemetry so there was no communication between the car and the pits,” the German said.

“They had no idea what was going on track and that’s why the start was also so bad and a lot of things came together. So I’m pleased with second.”

Ferrari, in 2004, were the last constructor to win the opening four races of the season before Mercedes’s efforts this year, and Alonso, who was third yesterday, acknowledged that he and Ferrari face a tall order to try to catch their rivals in the remaining 15 races of the season.

At the moment, it seems very far away because they have a big advantage and we need to work really hard if we want to have that possibility,” he said.

“There is nothing really special we can do, just don’t give up. We’re in the fourth race in the championship, there’s still a long way go but being super-realistic, knowing that the gap is very very big it’s going to be very tough.”

There are three weeks until the next round of the season in Spain and the period between will be an opportunity for the 11 teams to work on developments for their respective cars as they try to find the speed to catch Mercedes.

The bad news for them is Mercedes have no plans on resting on their laurels despite their perfect start to the season.

“Hopefully, more than all the other teams we want to go to Barcelona with the biggest step [forward in speed], that’s our ambition,” Rosberg said.

“Barcelona is a chance for us to extend the advantage that we have and that’s the approach that we have going to Barcelona, 100 per cent.”

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