Two weeks have passed since the enthralling race in Bahrain, where Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton took the winner’s trophy once again, finishing ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg, who took out second place.
In the time that has past we’ve learnt that Red Bull Racing’s appeal against Daniel Ricciardo’s exclusion from the Australian Grand Prix results was dismissed. And rather shockingly, Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali stepped down from the top job, making way for a new leader in Marco Mattiacci.
Testing times now lie ahead for the Scuderia, who are yet to appear on the podium this season. It is a harsh reality to look at, considering it was Fernando Alonso who won the Chinese Grand Prix twelve months ago ahead of the Mercedes of Hamilton and the then Lotus of Kimi Räikkönen.
With weather expected to be fairly normal over the weekend, it’s expected that Mercedes will repeat their performances from Bahrain and indeed Malaysia. Some rain is predicted for the Saturday, but it remains to be seen if it has a profound effect on qualifying.
If qualifying was indeed wet, it could allow for a Red Bull or Ferrari to get closer to the front of the grid.
The big question mark sits on Nico Rosberg this weekend, after having been runner up in the last two race meetings to his teammate. When casting our minds back to 2012, the Shanghai International Circuit was the scene of the young German’s breakthrough victory.
Two years later, he sits atop the championship standings having won only the single race in Australia and then having finished twice behind his teammate.
Psychologically, the win would put him back on par with Hamilton. The two ‘best friends’ as they say, have shown each other absolutely no quarter in their encounters together so far this year.
Rosberg will want the win to demonstrate that their inter-team battle is a one-sided affair.
As per the last race, the battle for third place will be hot. When the newfound pace of the Red Bulls are factored in, it shapes itself to be a very interesting fight. Force India were the ones to prevail in third in Bahrain with Sergio Perez, but it’s likely that there’ll be another face on the podium.
Perez’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg is never out of contention. The two Williams cars are yet to deliver on their promise from pre-season testing. McLaren, who had a disappointing outing Bahrain, will want to prove that their performance in Melbourne was not just a one-off.
Having put the fuel flow meter saga to rest, Ricciardo will be racing with a clear head (in case he already wasn’t). In Bahrain we saw him constantly put his quadruple-world champion teammate under pressure, which eventually resulted in the team asking Sebastian Vettel to let Ricciardo pass.
Another interesting and exciting race weekend is on the cards. Can it live up to the thriller we got in Bahrain?
Join us at 4:30pm AEST for the build up of the race, which starts at 5:00pm AEST.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
That should be it then for the Chinese Grand Prix this evening. Thanks very much for tuning in and enjoy the rest of the night.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle will be conducting the podium interview today.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
And now for the champagne!
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
For the third race in a row we hear the British national anthem for Lewis Hamilton, followed by the German anthem for Mercedes AMG.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Interesting to see the body language of the drivers in the briefing room. Rosberg standing on the opposite side of the room to his team-mate Hamilton. Both having a little giggle now, but it's obvious that Rosberg won't be happy until he has the winners cap once again.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Alonso comes over to be the first to congratulate Hamilton in parc ferme. Alonso of course claiming Ferrari's first podium of the season, surely giving new boss Marco Mattiacci something to be happy about.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Ricciardo too was very impressive to finish fourth. So far this season he hasn't made life for Vettel in the sister car very easy and again the West Australian will finish ahead of the reigning world champion.
Simoc
Guest
Alonso will be happy with that. That seems to be a significant improvement for Ferrari speedwise. Good race for Ricciardo. Thanks for the commentary Jawad.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
And it must be said that it was an impressive drive from Rosberg who went backwards on the start, took a shunt from the Williams of Bottas and then raced the entire distance without any telemetry. His second place finish means he still leads the championship, but only by one point over Hamilton.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
The top ten then for the Chinese Grand Prix today: Hamilton Rosberg Alonso Ricciardo Vettel Hulkenberg Bottas Räikkönen Perez Kvyat
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 56: And what a win from Lewis Hamilton, making it three in a row for the first time in his Formula One career. Nico Rosberg finishes in second to complete the third consecutive one-two for Mercedes and Fernando Alonso collects his first podium of the season in third.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 55: This will be a hat-trick of one-twos for Mercedes AMG if the current positions stand. It will also be a hat-trick for Hamilton too in terms of wins.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 55: Kobayashi looks like he is on the march to overtake the leading Marussia of Bianchi for P17.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 54: Great work down in tenth place for Kvyat, who is on track to earn his third set of points in his first four races in Formula One.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 53: Ricciardo loses time behind the lapped Lotus. The gap is 4.3 to Alonso.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 52: The Lotus of Maldonado is currently in the way of Ricciardo.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 52: Alonso locking up there going into turn 1... There maybe hope for Ricciardo yet with 4 laps remaining.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 52: Bianchi is currently the leader in the Marussia-Caterham battle down in P17. Kobayashi, Chilton and Ericsson follow at the back of the grid.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 51: More importantly for Ricciardo, he is beating his team-mate Vettel once again during the race.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 50: Ricciardo's engineer telling his driver that there still is hope for him with 6 laps to go in the race. It does look though that Alonso will maintain his position.