Lewis Hamilton celebrated yet another win in the 2015 Formula 1 Season, leading the pack in the Chinese Grand Prix from start to finish, as Mercedes strategy and pace proved to be too much for Ferrari.

Perhaps it would have been fitting for Mercedes to have three cars cross the finish line as the stewards waved the checkered flag. If only the AMG-GT Safety Car wouldn’t have pulled off right before the final straight, that would have been possible.

There were times when it felt like a closer race than it really was, but every time Ferrari tried to undertake Mercedes, the World Champs would just stave off all attacks and maintain their lead with relative ease.

Lewis’ teammate Nico Rosberg finished 2nd, which made it a Mercedes 1-2, while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel took 3rd ahead of his teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were P5 & P6 and fittingly so, as their cars showed much better pace than in previous races. Lotus‘ Romain Grosjean finished P7 while both Sauber drivers managed to get in the points with P8 and P10 finishes respectively.

Red Bull‘s Daniel Ricciardo was 9th, after an absolutely horrible start off the line where he thought the car’s anti-stall kicked in, even though the team suggested it might have been his fault. Regardless, he had to battle all the way to the end and all he got was 2 points.

10 Random Things We’ve Noticed

– Even though early in the race Ferrari seemed to (almost) match Mercedes’ pace, their strategy failed to provide them with the chance to undercut the champs. Mercedes were reacting to everything Ferrari was doing, and it paid off considerably. Still, we were impressed with the overall pace of the red cars.

– During the first couple of laps, we saw McLaren actually hang with Red Bull in the corner with ease. In fact the only times when Red Bull pulled away slightly was in a straight line where they had a clear advantage of a few extra km/h.

– Speaking of McLaren’s top speed, the announcers said that the Honda engine produces about 150 fewer HP than the Mercedes engine, while we thought the official estimates were around the 100 HP mark. Still, it’s a very large deficit which doesn’t always show thanks to the MP4-30 having pretty good downforce in the corners.

– On the straights, the Renault-powered Toro Rosso is no match for the Ferrari-powered Saubers, even with DRS lending a helping hand. Still, the Sauber had less downforce in the corners than the Toro Rosso so normally it would have evened out, except for the fact that China is a very fast circuit, which helped Sauber and hurt Toro Rosso.

– Hard to tell at one point (and yes we’re on a roll with “who’s faster” in a straight line) but Lotus looked just as fast if not faster than Sauber in a straight line – ignoring DRS.

– Ah, since we’re talking about Lotus, we have to say that after 17 laps they were looking extremely good. Just wondering if it will last that’s all.

– Also after 17 laps, Kvyat’s Renault-powered Red Bull “catches fire” and shuts down. Man, Renault just can’t catch a break.

– On lap 24, we thought a 2nd Renault-powered car would be out as Sainz started to pull his Toro Rosso over while saying he has a gearbox problem, before finding a working gear and resuming his race. Close call.

– The other Toro Rosso driver, Verstappen, really did have to pull his car over with engine failure. Renault engine failure that is. Just saying! Oh and it was also this incident that caused the safety car to come out as the race was coming to an end.

– A highly entertaining segment of the race took place right around lap 48 when Jenson Button and his McLaren-Honda went toe to toe with Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado. It was a real dog fight and Button held his own admirably, in the corners and under braking. Well, it all ended when Jenson crashed into the back of the Lotus so there’s that.

Shanghai Race Results

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari
5. Felipe Massa, Williams
6. Valtteri Bottas, Williams
7. Romain Grosjean, Lotus
8. Felipe Nasr, Sauber
9. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull
10. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber
11. Sergio Perez, Force India
12. Fernando Alonso, McLaren
13. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso
14. Jenson Button, McLaren
15. Will Stevens, Marussia
16. Roberto Merhi, Marussia