Lewis Hamilton cruises to secure sixth F1 Chinese Grand Prix

All weekend in China, Formula One has been celebrating the grand achievement of reaching its 1,000th world championship race. For Lewis Hamilton, who has competed in almost one quarter of those meetings, the race in Shanghai was less about the big picture than the detail, the execution. His judgment in doing so was proved correct with a dominant win that takes him to the world championship lead. What it did share with many of the races that preceded it in the 70 seasons since 1950 however was a single decisive moment.

As Hamilton celebrated his 75th win from 232 starts, and Mercedes their third consecutive one-two – the first time a team have opened a season so strongly since the all conquering Williams of 1992 – Ferrari were left licking their wounds. With Sebastian Vettel in third, 13 seconds down on Hamilton and his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc in fifth they must yet again consider why they cannot consistently unlock the pace of their car. Worse still, they threw in team orders – never popular with fans and done to no great effect – when Leclerc was ordered to let Vettel pass.

There are no alarm bells as yet at the Scuderia and Vettel still believes their car is fundamentally strong, but they are yet to learn how to manage it. Mercedes, too, are still coming to terms with their new ride but have carved out what would appear to be an unlikely advantage in the opening meetings. Hamilton now leads Valtteri Bottas by six points but is 31 points in front of Vettel.

Hamilton enjoyed a victory that had not looked on after he struggled to extract the best from his car over the weekend until it really mattered: in qualifying, second, and in the race. On Sunday he made a lightning getaway as Bottas suffered wheelspin on his start-line paint and Hamilton had the lead up the inside into turn one. It was the move that mattered and he did not relinquish the lead until the flag.

He accepted that, including the win he inherited after Ferrari’s mechanical problem in Bahrain, his team’s dominance had been perhaps against the odds but was confident they still had a great deal to offer.

“Through testing, we knew that it was very close, we knew that it was within a couple of tenths, but we did think that they had the upper hand,” he said. “There are still so many races to go and their car might work better in other places. Definitely with three one-twos I think we are a little bit over-delivering but there is still more to come.”

Ferrari had to manage their drivers and a yawning gap to Mercedes. They ordered Leclerc to let Vettel past on lap 11 to the former’s clear disappointment but having done so Vettel could not make any real dent in the Mercedes advantage and appeared to struggle, repeatedly locking up.

Immediately after the race Leclerc said he would seek an explanation from his team. Ferrari have said they would only favour Vettel in 50-50 situations and adjudged that this case merited the move. But Vettel was surprisingly defensive after the race, initially suggesting he would not discuss the issue because he believed his answers would be misquoted by the press.

“I knew the moment it happened that I would have to face these questions,” he said. “I’m not sure I want to answer because I’m a little bit against the way you – all of you – work, because you take bits out of answers here and there and put it into the wrong light.”

He did go on to state his case, but was unable to explain why he could not catch the leaders. “I felt I was faster in the car, I was asked if I can go faster. I answered that I felt I can,” he said. “I was a bit surprised when I was in free air – not surprised but I was struggling a bit to put the laps together. Once I found a rhythm, I was able to chip away. Obviously the objective was to try and catch Mercedes. At that point the gap was already quite big.”

Mercedes had indeed been able to stretch their legs out front in a race that Hamilton had taken hold of from the moment the lights went out. He has endured some poor starts in the past but has worked on his getaways and it paid off.

Their lead was never really threatened and even when a likely one-stop turned into a two-stopper as Red Bull pulled the trigger for a second stop for Max Verstappen who was fourth, Mercedes executed perfectly. They even managed to stack their cars through their second stop and ultimately maintain their one-two.

It was not the celebratory thriller F1 would have wanted for their 1,000th race but Hamilton and Mercedes will not care. They leave China once more firmly on the front foot with Ferrari yet again having to consider why they could not stay closer to their rivals and whether the numbers on their strategy calls really added up.

Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly was in sixth and took fastest lap, in front of the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo, his first finish this season. Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez was in eighth, Kimi Räikkönen in the Alfa Romeo ninth and an impressively strong 10th for Alexander Albon having started his Toro Rosso from the pitlane.