Lewis Hamilton wins the Chinese Grand Prix to move level with Sebastian Vettel at the top of the F1 table

Top of the tree | Hamilton lead from the start to move level with Vettel
Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images
Richard Parry9 April 2017

Lewis Hamilton led from the start to claim victory at the Chinese Grand Prix, and his fifth race win in Shanghai.

Hamilton was joined on the podium by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel (2) and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (3), with the teenager performing well throughout on what proved to be an impressive display from the Red Bull team.

Victory saw Hamilton move level with Vettel at the top of the drivers standings.

All but one of the cars started on slicks in Shanghai as the warm-up began, with Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso opting for the dry weather tyres. The decision had appeared to have paid off, and Renault’s Jolyon Palmer was called in early to make a pre-race change.

Drivers were given an early opportunity to change their tyres when the virtual safety car was called into action after Lance Stroll was sent spinning out of the race after a collision with Force India’s Sergio Perez to end the race for the Williams driver. A decision was later confirmed that the Mexican would not face further punishment for his involvement in the incident.

The VSC was called on again after Sauber’s Antonio Giovinazzi suffered his second crash of the weekend having appeared to aquaplane into the pit lane. His race was over, and with Pascal Wehrlein on the road to recovery, his season could be also.

Formula One Team Drivers & Cars 2017 - In pictures

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By lap 10, most of the cars had switched to softs or super softs.

Vettel, who won the opening race in Melbourne a fortnight ago, took the lunge on lap 21 to overtake Ferrari’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen to move up to fourth and close the gap on Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo before a bullish move on the 22nd sure him move up to the podium places.

Vettel would move to second place seven laps later after Max Verstappen’s wheels locked to present the German with an opportunity to overtake the second Red Bull car. That malfunction proved costly for the teenager, who subsequently dropped down into sixth.

McClaren’s disappointed was compounded on the 36th as Fernando Alonso’s followed teammate Stoffel Vandoorne out of the race.

Verstappen showed his calibre once again with a strong recovery in the final laps as he moved back up into the podium places to take third place from teammate Ricciardo in what was a scintillating finish from the Red Bull team.

Chinese Grand Prix results

Pos Driver Team
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2 Sebsatian Vettel Ferrari
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull
4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari
6 Valtteri Botas Mercedes
7 Carlos Sainz Jnr Toro Rosso
8 Kevin Magnussen Haas F1
9 Sergio Perez Force India
10 Esteban Ocon Force India
11 Romain Grosjean Haas F1
12 Niko Hulkenburg Renault
13 Jolyon Palmer Renault
14 Felipe Massa Williams
15 Marcus Ericsson Sauber
RET
RET
RET
RET
RET
Fernando Alonso
Daniil Kvyat
Stoffel Vandorne
Antonio Giovinazzi
Lance Stroll
McLaren
Toro Rosso
McLaren
Sauber
Williams

The next race takes place in Bahrain on April 14, at 4pm UK time.

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