10 Memorable Moments From The Chinese Grand Prix

Normal service resumed at the Shanghai International Circuit, with Lewis Hamilton scoring win number two of the season and his fourth victory in China.

It was an unusual end to the race under Safety Car conditions, with Nico Rosberg finishing second and Sebastian Vettel in third. There were some good battles and plenty of drama. Here are 10 memorable moments:

1. Hamilton’s aggressive start

Hamilton positioned his car aggressively at the start, angled so his Mercedes W06 was pointing towards the wall, to cover off Rosberg. He had a strong launch from the line and led into Turn 1, with the top three retaining their positions.

Behind, Kimi Raikkonen moved ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, while anti-stall kicked in for Daniel Ricciardo and he fell from seventh to 17th.

Daniil Kvyat started the race on the medium tyre and was told to not put up a fight against his team-mate RIcciardo, as the Australian attempted to recover ground. He didn’t make it particularly easy, and took a while to let him through, which probably wiped the perma-grin off Ricciardo’s face.

4. Up in smoke

Kvyat retired from the race in a big puff of smoke when his engine failed on lap 17, more Renault problems for Red Bull Racing.

5. Battles up and down the field

We saw some fantastic battles for position and several close and clean fights throughout the race, including Verstappen’s scrap with Nasr and Ricciardo’s battle with Ericsson. The three-time F1 race winner also completed a stunning overtake around the outside of Carlos Sainz Jr at Turn 7.

6. From hero to zero

After a positive first part of the race, it all went downhill for Pastor Maldonado. First, he went straight on at the pit lane entry and was forced to reverse to turn around. He then spun at Turn 7 and then started fighting with the two McLaren drivers…

Maldonado’s battle with Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso came to an abrupt end. Button ran into the back of the Lotus at Turn 1, causing him to spin and retire a few laps later. The 2009 champion continued with a damaged front wing.

8. Facepalm

Verstappen’s race ended in disappointment after an engine failure with a few laps to go. He stopped by the pit wall on the start/finish straight, causing the Safety Car to be deployed. The marshals attempted to recover the car, but ended up pushing it into the barrier twice. Awkward.

9. Hamilton takes victory

The reigning world champion’s winning advantage would have been over six seconds had the Mercedes AMG GT not made an appearance. Because of it, he crossed the line seven tenths clear of Rosberg, with Vettel in third.

Raikkonen finished just behind his team-mate, with Felipe Massa, Valtteri Bottas and Romain Grosjean next up. Nasr, Ricciardo and Ericsson completed the top 10.

10. Rosberg not happy

Hamilton was warned during the second stint to up his pace, after Rosberg complained that he was going too slowly. The handbags were out in the post-race press conference, with Rosberg feeling his team-mate was unnecessarily slow before the final pit stops:

Hamilton: “I wasn’t controlling his race, I was controlling my own race.”

Rosberg: “It’s interesting to hear from you Lewis that you were just thinking about yourself with the pace when unnecessarily that was compromising my race. Driving slower than was maybe necessary at the beginning of stints meant that Sebastian was very close to me and that opening up the opportunity for Sebastian to try that early pit-stop, to try and jump me. I was unnecessarily close to Sebastian as a result and it cost me race time as a result.”

Hamilton: “It’s not my job to look after Nico’s race. My job is to manage the car and to bring the car home as fast as possible and that’s what I did. I didn’t do anything intentionally to slow the cars up.”