Updated: Apr 21, 2014 10:45 am
Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory in the Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai, winning his third consecutive race of the season.
Team mate Nico Rosberg took second after starting from fourth behind both Red Bulls, managing to overtake Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso late in the race.
Reigning world champion Sebastien Vettel was again beaten by the increasingly impressive Daniel Ricciardo. The German was asked by his team Red Bull to let his team mate through for the second race in succession only for the German to refuse echoing reminders of last season with Mark Webber.
However, Vettel allowed his team mate through a couple of laps later.
Hamilton pulled away from pole position at roughly a second a lap and never put a foot wrong for the whole race. The win closed the deficit on team mate Rosberg to four points at the top of the championship.
Rosberg himself had a poor start to the race after a loss of telemetry losing two grid positions but showed the excellent pace of the Mercedes to fight back and finish second behind compatriot Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso had a brilliant drive in is Ferrari to finish in third. A typical bright start enabled him to take third place, before overtaking Sebastien Vettel in the pit stops for second.
Sadly his car lacked the pace of the Mercedes and after being overtaken by Rosberg held on to finish third for a Ferrari team having a tumultuous start to the season.
Curiously an error by an official led to the race being shortened by two laps. Hamilton was shown the chequered flag on the start of his last lap, the race continued but rules state that in the circumstances a result is declared.
