Hamilton leaves Vettel 6 seconds behind, takes first place at Chinese GP

The head start advantage helped the Mercedes star to comfortably navigate the entire race and win in Shanghai on Sunday afternoon, April 9.

Lewis Hamilton finished 56 laps in 1 hour 37 minutes 36.160 seconds, winning the Chinese Grand Prix for the fifth time. His 54th victory and 106th podium finish in his F1 career helped the British Mercedes driver equal the number of top 3 finishes of the legendary Alain Prost.

Hamilton won his first race in the 2017 F1 season. Photo: Reuters.

Looking at the gap of more than 6 seconds compared to the second-placed Sebastian Vettel, it seems that the Chinese GP is an easy race for Hamilton. But in fact, in the early laps, the British star was still nervous when facing Vettel at the start, while the risk was always lurking because of having to race on a slippery road surface and the potential for sudden rain at the beginning of the stage.

However, a series of accidents followed, leading to a virtual safety car and then an early safety car, allowing Hamilton to regain his composure and pull away from his German rival from Ferrari. Vettel could no longer even keep up with the Mercedes driver, as his early pit strategy left him stuck behind the middle group.

Behind him, Bottas also struggled with the crowd, dropping as low as 12th before recovering to finish sixth behind veteran compatriot Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari). Rounding out the top three was Red Bull prodigy Max Verstappen. The youngster continued to show his talent, starting 16th but quickly climbing into the lead and then constantly challenging seniors like Vettel, Raikkonen and teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

The race could have gone in a completely different direction if it weren't for rookie Antonio Giovinazzi's (Sauber) accident right at the starting line on lap four, which forced the safety car to appear.

Hamilton had held off Vettel and Bottas's fierce attacks at the start to maintain his lead, but Lance Stroll's (Williams) car was thrown onto the gravel on lap 2 after being hit by Sergio Perez (Force India) which led to the virtual safety car being deployed early.

Vettel and most of the midfield drivers returned to the pits to switch to dry tyres instead of the intermediates they had started on. Ferrari's decision dropped the German to sixth, as his front-field rivals remained on intermediates and did not pit on lap two.

At this point, Hamilton had already left the group of drivers following him, Bottas, Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Verstappen, far behind. Vettel had to wait for his rivals to pit for dry tyres to counterattack. However, Giovinazzi's accident on lap four left the starting area littered with debris from the C36. The safety car was deployed and the race was asked to use the pit lane to avoid the accident area. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Hamilton and the drivers who had not yet changed tyres immediately drove into the technical area to change tyres.

When he returned to the track, the W08 was still comfortably in the lead. For the rest of the race, despite his best efforts, Vettel had no chance to catch Hamilton and had to accept seeing his rival take his first win of the 2017 season. The safety car on lap four not only cost the German the chance to compete for the first place in the race, but also forced him to fight hard in the first half of the race to regain second place.

Vettel lost his chance to compete for the lead due to collisions early in the race. Photo: Reuters.

To finish second, Vettel had to beat teammate Raikkonen and the Red Bull duo. Verstappen moved up to sixth on the first lap and took fifth when Vettel pitted early. The talented Red Bull driver then quickly overtook veteran Raikkonen, who had been overtaken by Ricciardo for fourth at the start.

By lap 11, it was Ricciardo’s turn to be the underdog to his young teammate. A brilliant overtake at Turn 5 left Verstappen behind Hamilton with just 20% of the race gone, despite the Dutch prodigy having to start in 16th place. Behind, Ricciardo quickly fell behind and had to constantly fend off the attacks of the Ferrari duo, led by Raikkonen’s SF70H.

After nine consecutive unsuccessful attacks, the Finnish veteran was easily overtaken by his teammate Vettel on lap 20. At this time, Verstappen was nearly 4 seconds behind Hamilton. The possibility of Vettel returning to fight Hamilton was almost gone. The Ferrari number one's immediate opponent was the Red Bull duo.

On lap 22, Vettel made a brilliant pass on his former teammate Ricciardo just outside Turn 5. The powerful and technical move left Ferrari management in awe as the two cars briefly touched mid-corner. However, Vettel was still safe and passed Ricciardo to move up to third.

At this point, Vettel was still nearly four seconds behind Verstappen. But the gap was quickly erased just a few laps later, as the German continued to set fastest laps while his rival made a few small mistakes in cornering. By lap 29, with the RB13's tires worn out, Vettel easily overtook his rival, while Verstappen had to pit immediately for tires.

Verstappen (black and yellow car) made the strongest impression when he broke away from the 16th starting position to finish third. Photo: Reuters.

Vettel quickly regained second place, but by then he was 11 seconds behind Hamilton, so the possibility of taking the lead was extremely difficult. On lap 34, Ferrari called Vettel back to switch to new tires, forcing Mercedes to call Hamilton back to the technical area on lap 36. However, Vettel's efforts in the second half of the race only helped him narrow the gap but could not get closer and approach his opponent.

After the finish, Hamilton said: "I think this will be a stressful season, if not the most stressful I've ever experienced. Ferrari are doing a great job with their ambitions. It's great to be racing against a strong opponent."

Vettel regretted: "The safety car came just when I started to have good experience and advantage from the dry tires. At that time, I hoped to have an interesting race. However, being stuck behind the crowd in the first half of the race made it difficult for me to catch Hamilton. Anyway, this was a good and enjoyable race for me."

Verstappen, who finished in the top three for the first time in Shanghai, was also pleased with the result: "It was a challenging race but I really enjoyed the way it went. Overtaking nine cars at the start was a really exciting feeling and the start of a great race for me. I didn't have much time in testing this time, so I didn't think I could be on the podium after starting 16th."

Chinese Grand Prix Results

+) Fastest-lap: 1 minute 35.378 seconds set by Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) at lap 44.

According to VNE