There is no better feeling than that of winning two straight races to kick off the racing season…. well, except winning three consecutive races, that is.
The Shanghai International Circuit played host to the F1 fraternity for the thrid round of the 2016 Formula 1 season. Rain drenched the circuit on Saturday and made qualifying tricky to say the least. The biggest news to come out of Shanghai was that of Lewis Hamilton failing to set a propoer time in qualifying due to an ERS problem and will be starting from the very back of the grid. His title defense is now in serious jeopardy as teammate Nico Rosberg just keeps going from strength to strength.
As expected, Rosberg managed to take pole, but, it was Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull that surprised everyone, even Team Principal Christian Horner. Ricciardo knocked in a time of 1.35.917 just 0.5 seconds adrift of the Mercedes. Kimi Raikkonen, who had provisional pole before Rosberg’s banker lap, bested Sebastian Vettel who only manged P4. But all points show that the Ferrari are indeed on the upswing, and in a few races time could well threathen for the win. Mecedes would be well advised to be on the lookout for a challenge very, very soon.
At the start, Rosberg got off cleanly but it was the Red Bull of Ricciardo, who muscled its way to the lead as the cars reached the looping turn 1, Nico had no choice but to yield the position. Meanwhile Kimi, who likewise had a flying start, got tangled up with Vettel. Sebastian who was running fourth, found himself between the other Ferrari and the equally fast Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat, the Russian saw an opening and dove for the gap at the apex of turn 1. This move seemed to surprise Vettel who unceremoniously drove up the side of Raikkonen. This dropped both Kimi and Sebastian down the order, Raikkonen had to go around the track to head back to the pits for a new set of tires and a nose cone. Lewis Hamilton, for his part, tried to vault past as much cars as he could on the opening lap, but he too found himself with nowhere to go and got rammed by the Sauber of Felipe Nasr Jr. This broke off the front wing of the Mercedes, and, like Kimi, Lewis crawled back around to the pits for a new nose cone. This was the first of his five stops during the race.
Hamilton was in damage limitation mode from that point on.
In front, Rosberg had no reply for the speed of Ricciardo, Daniel was driving the wheels off the Red Bull, but on lap 2, fate decided to step in. On the back straight, the Red Bull blew out its left rear tire as it ran across some carbon fibre, simultaneously Rosberg, aided by DRS flew by the stricken Red Bull.
Rosberg inherited the lead and was never challenged on his way to win number 3.
In the mid field, action was frenetic, cars lining up each other to make a pass, some collecting others, but most made their move stick. Vettel figured in another scrap with Bottas in the Williams, this prompted another trip down pit lane for a Ferrari new nose, while Fernando Alonso was battling seen it out with Sergio Perez in the Force India. Daniil Kvyat made easy pickings of Jenson Button in the McLaren, while Hamilton was passing car after car in the hopes of finishing in a point scoring position. This went on for the entire 56 laps.
This was the racing that Formula 1 needed to get its fans back into the fold. It was action packed. It was race of attrition, and with the exception of Rosberg out in front, it was a guessing game until the last few laps as to who’ll end up on the podium.
As the flag fell it was Nico Rosberg who stood tall and claimed his 3rd win of the season. He was followed by Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari and the Russian Daniil Kvyat on board his Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton was able to keep Rosberg within his sights in the championship standings. The defending champ was able to recover from all his problems to finish in 7th place, earning 6 points in the process.
At the holding room for the podium ceremonies, Sebastian Vettel confronted Kvyat about the first corner incident. Sebastian was berarting Kvyat about his move, to which, the Russian laughingly replied, “I’m racing”.
The championship now stands at 70 points for Nico, Lewis with 39. In 3rd is Daniel Ricciardo has 36 and Sebastian Vettel is down in 4th with 33 points and Kimi Raikkonen rounds up the top 5 with 28 points.
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