The Chinese Grand Prix wasn't great but it has delivered a lot of potential ructions for the future. I confess I've not actually seen the race, but I did hear it on the way to the World Endurance Championship taking place at Silverstone today. A lot of focus on radio goes on the leaders which is fair enough, but it does give you a harder time when trying to decipher where the best battles were although there were some obvious moments. Anyway, a truncated discussion of the Chinese race now follows.
Star of the race
Max Verstappen is delivering on the hype that's surrounded him since he was announced as the youngest ever Formula 1 driver last year. After starting down in 13th he put in an assured and confident performance with late braking moves on Sauber's Marcus Ericsson and Force India's Sergio Perez into the hairpin combined with a good strategy. Unfortunately his race went up in smoke a couple of laps from the end. At only 17 he's still learning his craft and that's got to make the drivers at the top take notice.
The winner
Lewis Hamilton dominated the Chinese race, a perfect riposte to Ferrari's unexpected Malaysian win two weeks ago. He pretty much led from start to finish with only his team mate Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen taking a few laps from him during the pit stops.
He started as he meant to go on. He lined up the car from pole position at such an angle towards the inside of the track that there was no doubting his intentions to want to block any attempt by Rosberg to get by. Either that or he just over shot with a final warming up of the tyres.
Lewis got away well and from then on just managed the gap. A lot is said about Lewis' aggressive nature in racing, but he's one of the best at just ticking off the laps as he takes control of the race. So in control was he that Rosberg thought his Mercedes team mate was backing him up into the Ferrari's.
Ah yes the Prancing Horse might not have galloped quite as strongly as it did in Malaysia but it was most certainly there, both of them this time with Sebastian Vettel tailing Rosberg for most of it, before Kimi Raikkonen gave him something to think about towards the end of the race. The Ferrari's served notice that they are at least going to make a race of it this year.
It certainly rattled Rosberg, because as Lewis continued on his serene way, just making sure everything was ok with his car and cruising it home to the finish, Nico was coming under attack from Vettel, especially with the undercut at pit stops. This is what the number 6 Mercedes felt was compromising his own strategy. He believed Lewis was doing this deliberately, something that has been denied.
Whatever, it didn't bother Lewis and he came home for his 35th career victory. Rosberg was second, with Vettel and Kimi lurking not far behind. I think we'll see a lot more silver and red battles as we go through the year.
The battles
Which brings me nicely on to some of the other highlighted battles of the day.
The Mercedes and Ferrari fight was one of strategy. Verstappen's moves were of controlled opportunism. Daniel Ricciardo was one to watch as he fell down the field after a terrible start from seventh on the grid. He made few moves which just didn't come off, in fact he seemed far less in command of the car than he has been, particularly compared to last year.
Perhaps his brilliant 2014 has made his expectations higher, I don't think he was predicting that in 2015 he'd be fighting for the lower reaches of the top ten and this has made his driving slightly off so far this year. Nevertheless, he came back through the field to eventually reward himself with ninth.
The main headline grabbing battle has to be that of the chase McLaren's Jenson Button gave to Pastor Maldonado. It was a little bit epic and always tense, you never know what Maldonado might do after all! As these two scrapped, Fernando Alonso on faster tyres was catching his team mate quickly, as the three were joined Button made his move and clattered into the back of Pastor at turn one, not his fault this time. It earned the Brit a five second penalty and points on his license.
Alonso moved through and gladly took the places. He had reached the dizzying heights of 13th. You see, there's action all the way down the field in Formula 1. Maldonado was out, but Button continued to 15th. It might not seem like it but McLaren are getting closer. They may have dropped out of qualifying in the first round again, but they are racing and not just with themselves. I think once we reach round five in Spain they'll be on the edge of the points.
Things of note
To me this result confirmed that Ferrari will be a factor at most races this year. They were still there at the end of the race despite Mercedes pace advantage. Which leads me to make this bold statement. Kimi will be back on the podium soon, and might even sneak a win. He can be relentless when given a chance of victory. He's certainly not lost his racers edge, his opening lap confirmed this as he took both Williams cars to rise from sixth to fourth.
While Ferrari are edging closer to the front, the Williams cars, the closest challengers to Mercedes on pace last year are not in contention. They may not have been all that far behind today with fifth for Felipe Massa and sixth for Valtteri Bottas, but a threat for victory? I think not. It's such a shame for one of the nicest looking cars around and a great team. They've got plenty of time to try and extract more pace though.
At least they're better off than Red Bull, as Ricciardo struggled to the points Kvyat had a miserable afternoon retiring with engine failure. The team and Renault really need to raise their game before all these threats of withdrawing from the sport are too hard to say no to.
Sauber are still making hay while other teams struggle. An eighth and a tenth for Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson respectively is another strong result. It just goes to show that Ferrari's improved power unit has not only helped their own team but helped push their customer back into points paying contention.
Points are also what Lotus have as well. Romain Grosjean crossed the line in seventh. A strong showing that earned the team points they should have had already. As Grosjean impressed, Maldonado was heading for escape roads in the pit lane. He may not have been to blame for his accident today, but even with video evidence you're still thinking but he must have done something ...
Both Manor Marussia's finished as well. Which is nice.
The title chase
So Hamilton now leads the title chase by 13 points from Sebastian Vettel. Rosberg is a further four behind.
Hamilton is looking confident, composed, has all the answers. Vettel is the underdog and believes there are more wins to come and has no doubts that he should aim for the championship if he can.
Rosberg is whining and looking for excuses. I like Rosberg he's a good driver, but he needed to put one over on Hamilton this weekend and he didn't. He nearly matched him in qualifying, he possibly could have had a go at the win too, but he didn't. In fact he was more concerned about the Ferrari's.
I think Hamilton has got Rosberg mentally beaten already. Bahrain is just a week away, with high temperatures expected, could this be another race that might be Ferrari's for the taking? And if it is, will Mercedes starting having just tiny tiny thoughts, that perhaps this year Hamilton's challenger won't be Rosberg at all, it'll be Vettel. If there's anyone at all...
all photo's taken from autosport.com
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