Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory with his first win of 2017
The weather was far from appealing on the weekend of 8th April 2017 in Shanghai, but Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory with his first win of 2017.
Despite the weather issues, the race continued and saw Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen take 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Valtteri Bottas was left disappointed after a spin on lap 7, causing him to drop down from 3rd to 12th. He never did fully recover as he finished in P6.
Daniel Ricciardo fought hard to get on the podium but lost out to teammate Verstappen. A great battle ensued between the two.
Voted F1 driver of the day was Max Verstappen as he started 17th and ended the race 2nd. The young driver held his own throughout the race with lots of action between him and Ricciardo.
Verstappen took P2 from Ricciardo on lap 11 but the fight was not over as the last 5 laps saw the latter trying to regain track position in a bid for the podium finish.
An epic battle ensued between the two as Ricciardo had a look at Verstappen a number of times. Even with DRS (Drag Reduction System), the Australian could not clinch that podium.
The Aussie had another great battle with Ferrari’s Vettel on turn 7 as they fought side by side on Lap 23. The Ferrari was not outpaced as Vettel comfortably slotted in ahead of him.
Guys, I can't explain to you the feeling. Thank you so much for your support this weekend. #ChineseGP #F1 @MercedesAMGF1 ? X @spinzbeatsinc pic.twitter.com/KCfbYoWcRj
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) April 9, 2017
It was a thrilling start to the race though, as Lewis Hamilton held on to his lead with Vettel close in P2. Plenty of action as the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was forced to be employed when Lance Stroll took a spin by Sergio Perez and strolled onto the gravel.
This was the first of 5 retirements in the race, as Antonio Giovinazzi crashed out on lap 4 signalling the actual safety car to make an entrance. It was a string of bad fortune for Gio as his weekend was full of disappointing crashes.
All cars were ordered to go through the pitlane before the race restarted on lap 6.
Other retirements came from the likes of Fernando Alonso for McLaren who was forced to retire after fuel pressure on lap 33.
The Bahrain GP starts this Friday 15th April 2017.
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