The third one-two for Mercedes in 2014. Lewis Hamilton walked the Chinese Grand Prix, winning by 18 seconds, but his third victory in succession had not been on the cards from the start of practice.
At the end of the first day on Friday, despite being fastest, Hamilton was not happy. Having lost track time due to work on the front suspension in the morning, the Englishman remained unconvinced. “There’s something not right with this car,” he said before walking, grim-faced, towards the Mercedes technical office on one of the many little islands forming the paddock at Shanghai International Circuit.
Twenty fours later, he was smiling again. An exquisite display of car control in very wet conditions gave Hamilton his 34th pole position. Better than that, his championship rival and team-mate, Nico Rosberg, had struggled with the brakes on his Mercedes and run wide by enough of a margin to put him fourth on the grid behind the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel.
Rosberg’s weekend would not get any better when the race started in the dry on Sunday. His car-to-pit telemetry would be out of action for the entire race and a slow getaway would leave him exposed to the knock-on effect of a wheel-banging incident ahead between Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari (fifth on the grid) and the fast-starting Felipe Massa (from sixth). As Rosberg backed off slightly to avoid what looked like being a large accident (but wasn’t, as both the Ferrari and the Williams somehow continued), the Mercedes received a hefty whack from the other Williams of Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton, meanwhile, was long gone.
A lead of 1,5 seconds over Vettel at the end of the first lap may have indicated the possible outcome but, before making easy assumptions, Hamilton and his engineer needed to know about tyre wear. Shanghai being a front limited track, and one that had been washed clean by the rain to expose an abrasive surface in cool conditions, Hamilton watched the left-front “soft” Pirelli for signs of graining. None came.
“I was really surprised,” said Hamilton. “The car felt perfect; I could control the race and look after the tyre and fuel situations.” He could do that because of an 11-second lead after 10 laps. Now we waited to see how the pit stops would pan out. On paper, two stops were six seconds faster than three – provided the tyres lasted.
When Ricciardo (fourth after a poor start) came in after just 11 of the scheduled 56 laps, it seemed three stops would be the popular choice. In fact, fitting the harder ‘medium’ tyre signalled a longer than expected middle stint, one that would serve Ricciardo well and bring the only moment of intrigue in what was turning out to be a fairly uneventful race.
When the first phase of stops were complete (Hamilton being the last of the leaders to come in on lap 17), Ricciardo was in fifth place behind Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel and Rosberg. The pace of the Mercedes allowed Rosberg to take Vettel, Ricciardo then closing in on his team-mate.
For the second race in succession, the reigning World Champion suffered the ignominy of being asked to let Ricciardo through because he was faster. This time, Vettel was not prepared to play ball. When he ascertained that there was no difference in tyre strategy (unlike Bahrain two weeks before), Vettel said simply: “Tough luck”. The Red Bull drivers spent more than a lap fighting for position before Vettel ran wide at Turn 1 and Ricciardo was through. Vettel later said he had let his team-mate by. If so, it seemed a strange place to do it as Vettel then ran through considerable tyre debris fringing the outside of the corner.
Free to attack, Ricciardo set after Alonso (now third after putting up no resistance to Rosberg) and closed to within a second of the Ferrari at the flag – prompting conjecture about what might have happened had he not been delayed by the fight with his team-mate. The first podium of the season for Ferrari was timely and welcome, even if it did make a nonsense of the overly dramatic departure of team principal Stefano Domenicali a few days before.
No amount of managerial reshuffling within any of the teams is going to help reduce the significant performance advantage held by Mercedes after four races. Rosberg continues to lead the championship but you could sense his frustration as Hamilton continued to make ground following the Englishman’s retirement from the first race in Australia.
Now the scene shifts to Europe and Barcelona on May 11. It’s game on. But only, it seems, if you are a Mercedes driver.