Marking his sixth win in a row, Nico Rosberg's Chinese Grand Prix victory for Mercedes makes his third win for the 2016 season. Sebastian Vettel brought his Ferrari home in second place as Daniil Kvyat finished third for Red Bull Racing.
With a chaotic start to the third grand prix of the season, Daniel Ricciardo won the fight into turn 1, Nico Rosberg dropped down to second. The Ferraris of Raikkonen and Vettel which started on row two, collided at the first corner leaving Raikkonen to suffer a broken front wing. Raikkonen was sent right to the back of the field and battle his way up the order.
The second Red Bull of Kvyat sneaked past Vettel into the first few corners, which led Vettel to have the collision with Raikkonen and the German very unhappy with Kyat. This dropped Vettel down to ninth place from fourth, where he started.
Meanwhile, at the back of the pack, defending champion, Lewis Hamilton also los his front wing after his clash with Felipe Nasr’s Sauber. Both Raikkoen and Hamilton dived into the pits at the end of the first lap.
Due to the debris lying on track from the incidents on lap 1, Ricciardo suffered a puncture while leading the race on lap three. The puncture ruined the Australians chance of victory but brought out the safety car and Rosberg to take the lead which he painted comfortably to the end of the race.
Thanks to the safety car, Raikkonen and Hamilton were given a second chance at the race. However, Mercedes might have ruined Hamilton’s race with an arguable strategy by pitting him three times in seven laps. Hamilton changed to the super softs from the softs and then back onto a new set of softs under the safety car. Hamilton only managed to finish seventh.
Both Ferraris fought their way to the front along with Ricciardo. Vettel overtook Kvyat on lap 37 to seal his position in second.
Ricciardo managed to bring the car home in fourth for Redbull racing 52 seconds behind Rosberg. Raikkonen, after a well fought battle from the back of the pack, finished fifth in the Ferrari, another 13 seconds further back.
Felipe Massa finished sixth ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen finished eighth, Sainz ninth and Valterri Bottas claimed the final championship point of the race in tenth place.
2016 F1 CHINESE GRAND PRIX (17/04/2016)
Shanghai International Circuit – 5.451km, 16 turns (56 laps)
1 NICO ROSBERG (MERCEDES) 1:38:53.891
2 SEBASTIAN VETTEL (FERRARI) +37.776s
3 DANIIL KVYAT (RED BULL - TAG HEUER) +45.936s
4 DANIEL RICCIARDO (RED BULL - TAG HEUER) +52.688s
5 KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN (FERRARI) +65.872s
6 FELIPE MASSA (WILLIAMS - MERCEDES) +75.511s
7 LEWIS HAMILTON (MERCEDES) +78.230s
8 MAX VERSTAPPEN (TORO ROSSO - FERRARI) +79.268s
9 CARLOS SAINZ (TORO ROSSO - FERRARI) +84.127s
10 VALTTERI BOTTAS (WILLIAMS - MERCEDES) +86.192s
11 SERGIO PEREZ (FORCE INDIA - MERCEDES) +94.283s
12 FERNANDO ALONSO (MCLAREN - HONDA) +97.253s
13 JENSON BUTTON (MCLAREN - HONDA) +101.990s
14 ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ (HAAS - FERRARI) +1 lap
15 NICO HULKENBERG (FORCE INDIA - MERCEDES) +1 lap
16 MARCUS ERICSSON (SAUBER - FERRARI) +1 lap
17 KEVIN MAGNUSSEN (RENAULT) +1 lap
18 PASCAL WEHRLEIN (MANOR - MERCEDES) +1 lap
19 ROMAIN GROSJEAN (HAAS - FERRAI) +1 lap
20 FELIPE NASR (SAUBER - FERRARI) +1 lap
21 RIO HARYANTO (MANOR - MERCEDES) +1 lap
22 JOLYON PALMER (RENAULT) +1 lap
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