[VIDEO] 2015 Chinese Formula One Grand Prix highlights: F1 China blog

Race result:

Lewis Hamilton has won his second race of the season after winning the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix.

Leading from start to finish, in his Mercedes, Hamilton would finish ahead of Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel to extend his lead in the championship to 13 points.

After securing pole position in a close contest with Rosberg, Hamilton got a dream start as he led the field into turn 1.

Rosberg would remain in second, with Vettel close behind in third.

Vettel’s team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen, got a flying start as he climbed from sixth to fourth in the opening half of the lap.

Australia’s Dan Ricciardo, who started 7th, stalled on the grid and was 17th after the first lap.

Up front and the top four would stay the same for the remainder of the race. That didn’t stop the teams fighting each other along the way for victory though.

Vettel would remain close to the Mercedes drivers before the first pit stop on lap 14 as he tried to undercut to duo in the pit stop.

The Mercedes duo responded and pitted on the next two laps to remain in front of the Ferrari driver.

During the next stint, which was also on the soft tyre, Hamilton would control the race by going at a certain lap speed.

That slower speed allowed Vettel to close on Rosberg and for the Mercedes driver to get close to his team-mate.

This prompted Rosberg to tell his team to quicken Hamilton up to avoid a battle with Vettel.

He couldn’t overtake his team-mate, because of the tyres and turbulence of air, so he needed the pace to increase to move away from Vettel.

The team told Hamilton to speed up but the damage had been done.

Hamilton had helped to reduce the tyre quality of Rosberg and Vettel in the second stint while he was able to conserve his.

When Rosberg and Vettel pitted, on lap 31 and 32 respectively, Hamilton went into hammer time and did two laps one second quicker than his previous 15 laps.

He blew his opponents away, created the gap, and was able to make the final pit stop with ease.

In the final stint he was able to clear away from Rosberg and Vettel to win the race.

Rosberg would finish second and be absolutely annoyed at the tactics his team-mate did.

The team meeting between the two will be interesting.

Vettel was competitive but didn’t have the pace to match the Mercedes.

They will be lucky to win the championship this year and must rely on Mercedes errors to win races.

Behind the top four, it was a quiet race for Williams.

Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished 5th and 6th and were fighting each other for most of the race for position.

Lotus driver, Romain Grosjean, would finish in 7th, and record his first points for the season.

Felipe Nasr would finish 8th ahead of Daniel Ricciardo who recovered for 9th.

The Australian was the only Renault engine driver to finish inside the top ten after the rest ran into problems.

It was a great recovery from the Australian who fought hard for just two World Championship points.

His team-mates weren’t so lucky.

Daniil Kvyat had an engine failure with Toro Rosso driver Max Verstappen also having one with two laps to go.

This triggered a safety car and the race finished under it.

Hamilton, who coasted to the flag, now lead the championship by 13 points.

The teams will have no respite with the Bahrain Grand Prix on next weekend.

Match preview:

Can Mercedes bounce back in China after being beaten by Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari at the Malaysian Grand Prix? Find out as The Roar live blogs the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix from 3:50pm AEDT.

At the Malaysian Grand Prix Vettel and Ferrari used strategy and pace to win the race against the Mercedes.

Everyone is saying they are back and ready to compete with Mercedes for the championship this weekend.

After qualifying though many may have to re-question that thought.

Mercedes dominated the session again, like they have been doing for the season so far, and finished on pole for the third straight race.

Lewis Hamilton would secure pole by just 0.042 seconds over his team-mate Nico Rosberg. Ferrari, who would secure third with Vettel, were nine tenths behind Mercedes in the final session of qualifying.

This doesn’t bode well for the race, especially after you look at the Malaysian race in more detail.

Ferrari realistically won the race because of clever strategy, and a poor one from Mercedes.

From calculation done during the race Vettel was able to gain about 25 seconds during the race. He was able to gain ten seconds after the only safety car of the race on lap five.

Vettel was then able to gain more time after Mercedes aborted a two stop strategy for a three stop strategy.

The extra stop, and conservation of the tyres, gave Vettel around 15 more seconds over the Mercedes drivers.

With Vettel only winning by 8 seconds it shows that pace wasn’t the answer as to why they won. If Ferrari can match Mercedes’ pace today, with the same strategy, then they can be a genuine match for them this season.

From qualifying that looks unlikely for the Chinese Grand Prix and they will be looking to capitalise on Mercedes’ mistakes like Dan Ricciardo did in 2014.

Speaking of Ricciardo, he qualified seventh for the race, and feels the Red Bull is making strides in the right direction.

He was the next best driver after Ferrari, Williams and Mercedes.

After a disappointing two races for Williams, they bounced back well, finishing in fourth and fifth in the session.

Kimi Raikkonen, who has struggled in qualifying, will start from sixth.

It promises to be a good race if Ferrari can find the pace to match the Mercedes drivers. If they don’t, then it will be a fascinating battle between Hamilton and Rosberg for the win.

Rosberg hasn’t won a race all season and will be hoping to taste success for the first time this year.

With Hamilton winning three times in China though, he will be hard to beat.

Prediction: Hamilton