Talking points from the 2014 Chinese Grand Prix

A third win on the trot for Lewis Hamilton and yet another 1-2 for the Mercedes team at the 2014 Chinese Grand Prix are clearly a sign of things to come in this first season of the new F1 era. Mercedes certainly have got the best car among the lot and it will take a lot of time for the rest to catch up. Their dominance in the early stages of this season is eerily akin to that of the Brawn GP team in 2009 when Jenson Button romped home with the drivers’ championship with more than one-third of the season left. Let’s hope that will not be the case this time around. With this being Hamilton’s first hat-trick win of his career since 2007, Lewis has underlined his credentials as a favorite for the title this season. He is just four points shy of his teammate Rosberg who is the other favorite in what has turned out to be a two-horse race for the title, according to many.

Mercedes AMG Petronas’ British driver Lewis Hamilton (Front) takes a turn during the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai on April 20, 2014.

Red Bull and Ferrari showed good pace in yet another wet qualifying session this season, but were no match to the Mercedes’ in the race. This was quite evident in the ease with which Rosberg blazed past Fernando Alonso in the back straight for P2. Daniel Ricciardo out-qualified his prolific teammate Sebastian Vettel yet again, and also showed in the race that he is up for the fight by finishing ahead of the reigning World Champion in 4th, just a car length behind Alonso. Alonso himself did well to bag the first podium of the season for Ferrari after starting in 5th for the 21st time in a Ferrari. Besides the first lap incident with his former teammate Massa, in which he emerged unscathed, Alonso drove a flawless race and showed that he can still be in the scheme of things when it comes to the championship.

Reigning world champion Vettel is getting more and more frustrated with every passing race, as his grip on the title is loosening at a frenetic pace. Heck, even his status as the number one driver in the Red Bull Team is under threat with the new entrant, ‘The Smiling Aussie’ Daniel Ricciardo, being given the go ahead to overtake his teammate. A usually cool Vettel was extremely frustrated on the team radio when Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi tried to unlap himself by overtaking Vettel. If Vettel doesn’t up his game in the coming races, he may have to face the ignominy of being the no.2 in the team with Ricciardo doing so well in the other Red Bull despite having his fair share of bad luck.

Championship leader Rosberg deserved his second place after starting in 4th. His start was disastrous, colliding with the Williams of Bottas, but recovered well to overtake Vettel, Ricciardo and Alonso to finish nearly 20 seconds behind his teammate Hamilton. Rosberg clearly stated his title intentions a couple of weeks ago when he said that he does not like finishing second to Hamilton. This second place finish, during which he had issues with the telemetry and had to grind it out for places rather than just cruise through the race, will certainly give him a lot of confidence in the races to come.

Force India are doing a great job this year by following up on their podium finish in Bahrain with yet another double points finish at Shanghai. They are sitting pretty in third in the constructors’ championship table and with McLaren, and Lotus struggling this season, their dreams of finishing fourth/fifth might well come to fruition this year if they continue this amazing run.

It is astonishing to note that the chequered flag was waived early in the 54th lap itself in this modern day and age. It clearly took the man in the front Lewis Hamilton by surprise and after the race the stewards revised results to the 54th lap, though it did not have any major impact on the final standings (except Kamui Kobayashi, whose final lap move ahead of Jules Bianchi was nulled). It has caused major embarrassment to the organizers.

With the European leg of the season set to begin with Barcelona next week, it remains to be seen whether the rest of the field can rise to the challenge and break Mercedes’ stranglehold at the top.