Hamilton wins in China, Vettel second

Verstappen will now start in 17th place – a major setback for the young Dutch driver, who was coming off a fifth-placed finish in the Australian GP.

Max Verstappen staged an impressive recovery from 16th on the grid to take third place, holding off teammate Daniel Ricciardo over the line having made rapid progress at the start of the race.

Lewis Hamilton secured his first win of the season ahead of Sebastian Vettel in an enthralling Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday. Hamilton and Vettel have now traded positions between the first two Grand Prix and are currently tied in the Driver Standings.

Hamilton heaped praise on Vettel, the German four-time world champion, who was unlucky to have pitted just before a safety auto and emerged stuck in traffic. “I said to him on the podium “I told you”, the Brit added. Hamilton beat Vettel by 0.186 seconds for his second pole in two races, while the German edged the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas by 0.001secs.

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 43 points 3. It was unfortunate that he got he stuck behind all the other cars.

When an incident between Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez that ultimately put the Williams driver out of the race, caused a Virtual Safety Car period, drivers began pitting for slicks. He was fine but the real safety auto was called. A short time later later, on the fourth lap, Antonio Giovinazzi hit a wet patch and slammed into the wall, severely damaging his Sauber vehicle and bringing the race to a halt again. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was fourth.

Hamilton stayed in front throughout a chaotic race to get back on the top step yet again.

“It was mostly dry at the start but a couple of wet corners”. “So I couldn’t use the momentum, the advantage and I lost a lot of positions”.

– Only Michael Schumacher (142) has lead more races than Lewis Hamilton (101) in the Formula 1 history.

Meanwhile, Raikkonen was fifth, reporting throttle issues, and only switching to a two-stopper late on.

Bottas finished sixth. The Finn, who has replaced retired champion Nico Rosberg at Mercedes, dropped him down the field after spinning behind the safety auto.

Still, Hamilton doesn’t necessarily think he’s the odds-on favorite in Sunday’s race, given the pace shown by his rivals in the scarlet cars.

Fernando Alonso’s hopes of a points finish were dashed by a driveshaft failure, while team mate Stoffel Vandoorne was sidelined with fuel pressure problems.