Starting from pole Car 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes won the Grand Prix of China for his 2nd win & 3rd Top 3 of 2015. This was Hamilton’s 4th win in Shanghai on his way to his next championship bid. 2nd Place Car 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes for 3rd Top 3 of 2015. 3rd Place Car 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari for his 3rd Top 3 of 2015.
4th Place Car 7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari followed by 5th place Car 19 Felipe Massa Williams. 6th Place Car 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams followed by 7th place Car 8 Roman Grosjean Lotus. 8th Place Car 12 Felipe Nasr Sauber followed by 9th place Car 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing. Lastly in the Top 10 was Car 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber in 10th place.
Lewis Hamilton led the race from pole to the checkered flag, but was kept honest by his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, who was waiting for a mistake. As Hamilton was kept honest by his team-mate Sebastian Vettel had to fight his Ferrari team-mate for 3rd place. Before the race, it was thought that the Ferrari’s might be able to keep better tire ware than the Mercedes, but that did not become factor. The race ended under safety car, because Car 33 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso came to stop on the front straight with a few laps left.
PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Edwin Moses)
Edwin Moses asked, “Lewis, the gap was relatively small in the first part of the race. What happened in the second part of the race?”
Lewis Hamilton said, “First of all, a fantastic job by the team. It was great to have a smooth weekend, getting the sessions and really dialling in the car and today was kind of that effect of really putting the car in the place I wanted it and it was really just controlling the gap between myself and Nico and saving the tyres for when I needed to use them. I had lots left in my tyres at the end there [and] I was looking forward to eking out a gap but the safety car came out. But we’ve had such great fans here this weekend, thank you so much for the support everyone with all the big banners.
Edwin Moses asked, “Second question would be: when the safety car came out was the comforting to you, because I know you had a significant gap at the end of the race, which was comforting?”
Lewis Hamilton said, “The safety car at the end wasn’t helpful, I guess for anyone, because it’s kind of an anti-climax when you have a good race like that. But naturally, as long as no-one was injured and all the cars got back safely that’s what matters.”
Edwin Moses asked, “Alright Nico, another one-two for Mercedes-Benz. As a competitor I know it’s tough being a member of a team and an individual as well. How was your race today?”
Nico Rosberg said, “Well, you wouldn’t know how it feels to finish second; you never did, did you! Well, that’s the way it is. I gave it everything in the end on the prime tyre to try to close the gap to Lewis and just took some risks. But it didn’t pay off because my tyres just died off in the end, so there we go, I wouldn’t have managed to get any closer.”
Edwin Moses asked, “But your tyres were good enough to keep the gap between you and Vettel that’s for sure?”
Nico Rosberg said, “Yeah, definitely. We’re happy with the gap to Ferrari, having beaten them here after they beat us in Malaysia. It was very important for us as a team, a good, important comeback, so more of that for sure.”
Edwin Moses asked, “Sebastian congratulations, good to see you again. It was a tough day for you. The prediction was that Ferrari’s tyres would be perhaps superior and close in on the gap after the second pit stop?”
Sebastian Vettel said, ”Yeah. First of all, a huge honour to have you up here. I feel a bit small. OK, I mean racing drivers are small. I think it was a good race all in all. I think we were a bit closer probably on the softer compound of tyres and we were able to put some pressure on them. We tried to put more pressure by stopping fairly early for the last set of tyres, but I think on the harder tyres they were just that bit too quick, so they were able to pull away. From there onwards we tried to control the race and bring the podium back home, which is a great success for us, very happy. Thanks to the team. Thanks back to the factory, to Maranello, and obviously to all the support here from the fans.”
Edwin Moses asked, “At the beginning of the season people were questioning whether Ferrari was going to get back on the podium. How do you feel today?”
Sebastian Vettel said, ”Yeah, good. It’s been three out of three so far, so it feels pretty good. Obviously a big change over winter. A lot of things have changed. It’s nice. I feel really happy in the team. The guys are great, so I’m really enjoying the work and hopefully we can get a little bit closer to challenge these guys.”
Edwin Moses asked, “Thank you. One more question for you Lewis. Off to Bahrain next week. We wish we could see you at the Laureus World Sports awards, as well as Nico and of course Sebastian, as you all have been there. It started off good this year. I know you’ll be hoping that you remain… it’s better to be good then lucky! But you need luck in this event.”
Lewis Hamilton said, “No, of course, but as I said the team have been doing a fantastic job. We did a great job to come back from the last race where we kind of struggled a little bit. And to come here and kind of up our pace and improve, it’s all down to the guys that are here building my car and the guys back at the factory, so massively proud and happy that we could get the job done today.”
Press Conference:
Q: Lewis, many congratulations. Was the race as expected in terms of the challenge from Ferrari and, also, can you talk us through that radio message you got from the team about speeding up? Were you aware that Nico was getting so backed-up towards Sebastian Vettel?
Lewis Hamilton said, “I wasn’t controlling his race, I was controlling my own race but, great race, I’m really happy. Definitely going into the race we thought it would be a lot closer and we knew the Ferraris were very, very good with their long run pace and also looking after their tyres. So, today the real goal was to manage the tyres. And, as I said, my goal was to look after my car. I had no real threat from Nico through the whole race. So, I just managed it and got to really enjoy it, to be honest. A few of the real good fun laps were the laps before the pitstop, which I really enjoyed. Ultimately it was a much smoother weekend than we had in the last race where we got the whole, full practice sessions, on my side of the garage at least. And it made a real big difference to the balance of the car for the race. So really happy, and yeah, kinda excited.”
Q: Nico, can you talk us through your view of the race today. Started second, finished second but you sounded at times as though you felt at timed under a little bit of unnecessary pressure maybe?
Nico Rosberg said, “No. It’s just now interesting to hear from you, Lewis, that you were just thinking about yourself with the pace in front, and necessarily that was compromising my race. Driving slower than was maybe necessary at the beginning of stints meant that Sebastian was very close to me and that opened up the opportunity for Sebastian to try that early pitstop to try and jump me. And then I had to cover him. So, first of all it was unnecessarily close with Sebastian as a result, and also it cost me a lot of race time as a result because I had to cover him and then my tyres died at the end of the race because my stint was just so much longer. So I’m unhappy about that, of course, today. Other than that, not much to say.”
Q: Lewis, would you like to respond?
Lewis Hamilton said, “Not really! My job is not to… it’s not my job to look after Nico’s race. My job’s to manage the car and bring the car home as healthy and as fast as possible – and that’s what I did. I didn’t do anything intentionally to slow any of the cars up. I just was focussing on myself. If Nico wanted to get by he could have tried but he didn’t.”
Q: Sebastian. You tried everything today. The undercut, everything really strategy-wise that you could. Mercedes just had a little bit too much for you today but also at the end there, Kimi was catching you. Were you worried about him catching up to you towards the end of the race as well?
Sebastian Vettel said, ”Not really. I think I was in control. Obviously would have liked to have kept on racing, would have been close but in the end I still had a decent gap, obviously. I guess it’s a bit similar with Kimi and myself and Nico and Lewis. Obviously I try to be very aggressive. I think it was lap 29. That meant 27 laps on the Prime and I wasn’t sure if we really should try it – but then, I guess, we wanted to put pressure on Nico, which obviously makes the last stint very long, so at the end naturally you struggle with the tyres. I think Kimi was able to stay out a bit longer and therefore was a bit quicker at the end of the stint. But we tried everything we could today. I think it was very close, especially the first pitstop. I didn’t expect it to maybe be that close, so maybe I should have pushed a bit harder on the out-lap. Obviously it’s tricky here because you always try to look after the tyres but all-in-all I think it was a very good race for us. We were really able to put again some pressure on them, especially in the beginning of the race. Towards the end I think they were just too quick. They were pulling away. Nico had a sequence of really, really quick lap times – so we couldn’t do that – but all-in-all, as I said, closer here, which is great for us, and in front of the other teams. If we keep doing that, and keep getting closer, obviously there’s a point where we are some real challenge for these guys, which I’m looking forward to.”
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Sebastian, did you expect more performance with the new soft compound in the stint or was it the maximum you could achieve?
Sebastian Vettel said, ”You mean with the new tyre? Well, I think Nico was on new softs as well. I’m not sure about Lewis but I guess as well so yeah. We tried to save a set yesterday but unfortunately they did as well so I think it helped but we did all we could. Obviously it’s incredibly difficult. The closer you get, I was all the time something like 1.5s and then just before the pit stop, falling away a bit, around 1.8s-2.0s. To really get close, I tried desperately to get into the DRS (zone) but I couldn’t. Obviously it gets more and more difficult, especially with the type of corner you get here, opening onto the long straight, makes it quite tricky.”
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, did you think that this weekend you could be beaten fair and square by Ferrari or did they need something to happen to Mercedes to be beaten? And Sebastian, did you have to try something different to beat them?
Lewis Hamilton said, “Well, evidently, I guess I probably did.”
Sebastian Vettel said, ”If we could have beaten them, I wouldn’t be sitting to the left of Lewis, he would sit to the left of me so the answer is probably no and the answer to could we have done something different, I think we tried all we could. I don’t think it was in range to do a one stop or a three stop. I think both were slower. So the two stop was fairly straightforward for everyone and I think we tried to be as aggressive as we could be. Yeah, so the answer is still no, unfortunately, but as I said, very happy that we were significantly closer than four weeks ago.”
April 12, 2015 China Grand Prix Shanghai International Circuit
1st Grand Prix 2004, Circuit Length 5.451 km
Number of Laps 56, Race Distance 305.066
Lap Record 1:32.239 by Michael Schumacher (2004)
Position Car Driver Team
1. Car 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2. Car 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes
3. Car 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari
4. Car 7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari
5. Car 19 Felipe Massa Williams
6. Car 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams
7. Car 8 Roman Grosjean Lotus
8. Car 12 Felipe Nasr Sauber
9. Car 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing
10. Car 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber
11. Car 11 Sergio Perez Force India
12. Car 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren
13. Car 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso
14. Car 22 Jenson Button McLaren
15. Car 28 Will Stevens Marussia
16. Car 98 Roberto Merhi Marussia
17. Car 33 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso
RT Car 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus DNF
RT Car 26 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing DNF
RT Car 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India DNF
Next race: Bahrain Grand Prix April 19 2015.