Lewis Hamilton wins Chinese Grand Prix as tempers on team fray

Lewis Hamilton has won the Chinese Grand Prix for the second year running, holding off Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in a race that finished under the safety car. Hamilton darted aggressively into turn one from pole and picked up the pace over the second half of the race. Rosberg, perhaps sour over a near-miss on pole, could be heard snapping at his mechanics over the radio, at one point demanding: “Tell Lewis to speed up”. Hamilton, who had been protecting his tyres, duly obliged after a second round of pit stops, and established a comfortable gap over the German.

It’s not my job to look after Nico’s race. My job’s to manage the car and bring the car home as fast as possible. If Nico wanted to get by, he could have tried.

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton was cruising home almost five seconds ahead of Rosberg when Max Verstappen’s Torro Rosso stopped on the pit straight two laps from the end, bringing out the safety car. Hamilton now has two victories from three races this season and extended his record number of Shanghai wins to four, while Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finished third and fourth for Ferrari. Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished fifth and sixth respectively.