China – Race: Nico Rosberg imperial in China

We expected an explosive start on all fronts, with Nico Rosberg on pole ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and the two Ferraris, while Lewis Hamilton had to settle for 22nd place. We were not disappointed. This time, it was the Red Bulls that had the best start, with Daniel Ricciardo taking the lead at the first corner. Behind him, Daniil Kvyat also dived inside, causing a collision between Sebastian Vettel and his teammate Kimi Räikkönen. It was the Finn who bore the brunt, as his front wing remained on the track.

Behind, it was a domino effect as Kimi Räikkönen’s return to the track caused a pile-up at the back of the pack. As a result, Romain Grosjean collided with Felipe Nasr, who then bumped into Lewis Hamilton, leading him to lose his front wing as well. The Briton’s race was looking even more complicated than expected.

VIDEO 🎥 Watch that sensational start again. And again. And again…> https://t.co/S2VjuK1ohF #ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/8hotmsQsNc

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 17, 2016

Nonetheless, fate smiled somewhat on the Briton since when Nico Rosberg regained the lead on the 3rd lap, Daniel Ricciardo’s left rear tire shredded on the main straight! This brought out the safety car, which completely reshuffled the deck and especially erased on-track gaps.

Mercedes then chose a daring strategy for Lewis Hamilton: the world champion made two tire changes in two laps. The idea was to do only one lap on super-softs before focusing on softs. When the safety car returned to the pits, the Briton was already in contact with the rest of the pack, allowing him to begin a mad charge up the field.

On the other hand, others chose not to stop during this first race interruption. Pascal Wehrlein’s Manor was seen in 4th place while his teammate Rio Haryanto was 8th. But unfortunately for the small team, both drivers were unable to maintain their positions until the end of the race.

For his part, although Sebastian Vettel found himself in the middle of the pack after the first lap’s events, he was able to gradually climb back up, eventually overtaking Daniil Kvyat on the 36th lap. Nevertheless, by that time, Nico Rosberg was already out of reach, with nearly a 30-second lead over the rest of the pack.

But that didn’t mean the battle on track ended there. Indeed, Kimi Räikkönen, Daniel Ricciardo, and Lewis Hamilton continued to keep the race exciting until the end. The Australian from Red Bull managed to overcome his early-race puncture to climb back up to fourth place, behind his teammate.

LAP 49/56: Räikkönen on the charge; he passes Hamilton and then Massa in quick succession to take P5 #ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/6TRTL2Y8W6

— Formula 1 (@F1) 17 April 2016

We also witnessed a beautiful exchange between Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton, and Kimi Räikkönen. The Finn took advantage of his fresher medium tires compared to his rivals to overtake them one by one, while Lewis Hamilton struggled to try to shake off the Williams. But his worn tires only allowed him to achieve a final 7th place.

Valtteri Bottas even came back to within a few seconds of the Mercedes driver, but couldn’t pose a threat. The Finn even made a mistake in the penultimate lap, which handed 8th place to Max Verstappen. The second Toro Rosso driver, Carlos Sainz, also tried to overtake him, which he managed to do in the final lap.

On the other hand, Romain Grosjean did not experience the same success as in the first two races. With two laps to go, the Frenchman was heard openly complaining about his car’s “undriveable” behavior, but his team still asked him to finish the race, coming in at an anonymous 19th place. Notably, all cars managed to finish the race, despite all the incidents that marked the event. This hadn’t happened since the 2011 European Grand Prix.