Rosberg cruises in win in Shanghai

Rosberg waves to the Chinese fans

If there ever was a good argument for an inverted grid, this was it. Formula 1 put on an incredible display of racing at the Shanghai International Circuit on Sunday as many of the usual suspects found themselves well down the order and having to fight to get back to the front.

Nico Rosberg continued his cruise to the 2016 Formula 1 season with his second Chinese Grand Prix victory and 6th race win in a row (last 3 last year and first 3 this year) to open up a 36-point cushion over Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton who started last and had a race for of troubles.

Nico Rosberg had a race of his own in his Aldo Costa designed Mercedes, his advantage so huge that he was able to pit from the lead on lap 20 and re-emerge in the lead.

Behind him chaos at the start resulted in an action-packed race.

Rosberg finished 37.7 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel who was involved in a first lap accident but came back, with Daniil Kvyat on the podium in his Red Bull for the second time in his F1 career.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo took the lead into Turn 1 after beating polesitter Rosberg off the line from his own front-row position.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Kvyat charging up the inside and Vettel was forced into his team-mate Raikkonen, sending the Finn off the track and into the pits for repairs and breaking Vettel's front wing.

Vettel fumed over the radio, describing Kvyat as "a madman" who had made a "suicidal" move and had words with the Russian after the race.

For Rosberg it was his 17th career win and extends his championship lead.

Kvyat’s Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo finished in fourth place, followed by Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari in fifth place, Felipe Massa in the Williams-Mercedes was sixth.

Lewis Hamilton, in the Mercedes GP was seventh, Max Verstappen in the Toro Rosso-Ferrari was eighth, with his teammate Carlos Sainz in ninth, with Valtteri Bottas in the second Williams finished in the final points position in tenth place.

With the leading contenders delayed, Red Bull were the big winners, Ricciardo leading Rosberg from Kvyat, ahead of Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz and Vettel at the end of lap 1.

Rosberg smoked Ricciardo as soon as DRS was enabled, at the same time the Australian's left-rear puncture caused by debris on the circuit.

Prompting the safety car to come out and the mad dash to the pits, Vettel pulled off a daring two-car pass on the run to the pit lane entry – a move that looked illegal but was not

As one of the few drivers not to pit, Rosberg assumed the lead and stretched clear when the safety car pulled off after five laps, gapping the pack behind as those on fresher rubber emerged ahead of the Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and Pascal Wehrlein.

From here the race would become one of strategy, Mercedes attempting to play Hamilton back into contention with a total of five pit-stops for the defending champion.

More to follow……

QUOTES

MERCEDES

Nico Rosberg
It's been a fantastic few days for me here in China. First of all, the fans have been amazing from the moment I arrived. They're so enthusiastic, which gives us drivers a very special feeling. Then, racing wise, it was an almost perfect weekend. Only the start could have been better – but luckily I was able to pass Daniel later on the straight and from then on I could build up a gap. I must say, I've never had a better balance in my car than I had today. It was really perfect, so a big thanks to everyone who helped me achieve that. I also want to thank all the women in my life – my wife, my daughter and my mother. Their support is unbelievable and that's really what makes it possible for me to be doing what I'm doing. I'm a very happy man today and, after three races I can be really pleased about how my season has gone so far. But it's a very long year ahead and there's a lot of points still on the table, so I'm not losing my focus. Now I look forward to Russia, where I started my good run of qualifying results last year. Hopefully I can get on a nice run like that again.

Lewis Hamilton
That was definitely a difficult weekend. I got a good start – but it's always tricky being at the back and trying not to get caught up in the domino effect of any contact at the first corner. I tried to avoid whatever happened in front of me but I just got tangled up in it. It was just a bit unfortunate, really. From there it was always going to be a battle – but I had a lot of fun fighting back through! There were plenty of overtakes, from what I can remember! I gave it everything I had and P7 was about the limit. There was nothing left in the tires at the end and, although it's pretty good for overtaking here, I had quite a lot of damage to the car which made it difficult to get close on the brakes. From what I could feel there was definitely some aero loss and possible suspension damage too, as the car seemed to be flexing all over the place. But that's racing – it happens sometimes and at least I still managed to get a few points on the board. It's a pretty big hit points-wise today – but I'll just have to do what I can to make it up over the next few races. Onwards and upwards…

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
That was a rollercoaster race today. Nico enjoyed the perfect weekend: he was totally dominant this afternoon, always in control of his performance and did really a flawless job. For Lewis, the circumstances couldn't have been more different. He got a great start, tried to stay out of trouble in the first corners and still got collected by a Sauber, who was avoiding another car coming back on track. His front wing was lodged under the car for a while, which damaged the leading edge of the floor and cost him a chunk of downforce for the rest of the race – though it was hard to know exactly how much during the race. We did something different with him under the Safety Car, cycling through the SuperSoft tire with no loss of position, in order to open up some strategic options later in the race. He put in a great recovery drive and pulled off some great overtakes – but the damage to the car meant the tires didn't last as long as we had hoped and made it hard to catch cars through Turn 13 before the back straight. He still did a great job and kept charging to the end – but it was damage limitation again for him this afternoon. We are just three races into the longest season in Formula One history, so this isn't the time to be looking at Championship tables or points gaps. We just need to keep scoring points right now, continue to work on our reliability after some wobbles this weekend and keep working very hard to bring more performance to the car and Power Unit. Today looked like it could have been a three-way fight with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull if our rivals had a cleaner race – so there is no margin for us to relax.

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical)
Starting on Lewis' side, one of the debates we actually had overnight was whether to do a bit more work to the car and start him from the pit lane, which ironically would have been a better decision in hindsight given what happened at the first corner. Equally, Lewis had by far his best start of the season, which ironically contributed to him being caught up in the cascade of collisions ahead of him. So, a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances all round put him on the back foot straight away. We could see that there were problems with the car – both aerodynamic and mechanical – affecting him through the low-speed corners in particular. Under the safety car, we chose to perform consecutive pit stops with Lewis to get rid of the SuperSoft and enable us to run the rest of the race on the Soft, which was the stronger race tire. As it transpired, his first set of softs were cut from the first corner incident – something we were unaware of at the time – which meant we were then forced to run the medium at the end of the race, rendering our SuperSoft eliminating tactic redundant. So, overall, Lewis did a great job to recover what he could with a car that was significantly underperforming. On Nico's side, he actually had a less good start, losing a place into the first corner – although he was obviously running a less grippy tire compound than the cars around him. He was, however, able to re-pass Daniel quite quickly once DRS became available and went on to have a straightforward race from there – running a soft / soft / medium strategy as intended from the beginning. An uneventful race from his perspective – but that's not to underestimate the top job he did to manage the car safely within its limits and claim a well-deserved third victory of the season – and the 100th Formula One podium for the Silver Arrows in the process. We now look forward to Russia – targeting a clean and successful weekend on both sides of the garage.

FERRARI

Kimi Raikkonen
I have no idea of what happened at the start, I suddenly got hit and spun. I had a puncture in the left front tire and a front wing damage, but I managed to get back to the pits. Once I went back on track I found myself more or less in last position, the car felt a bit tricky, but I tried to do my best to charge through the field. At the beginning I struggled a bit, but then I managed to recover some places. Obviously the fifth position is not ideal and not what we were looking for, but after what happened it’s not a disaster. Seb came to apologize to me afterwards and it’s obvious he didn’t run into me on purpose. Unfortunately this does not change things for the race but it’s only the third round of a long season…

Sebastian Vettel
What happened at the first lap, in the end, is a racing incident. From my side I didn’t really know where to go, I was sandwiched between Kimi and Daniil. Obviously I am terribly sorry for what has happened, I mean touching the car with the same colors is not right. It was a shame, because it destroyed both of our races, Kimi’s and mine. At the end of the day we’ve been lucky because we were still able to continue. The safety car helped us to sort of come back. Kimi locked up in turn one. I tried to go inside to pass him. Daniil was behind me. He had a better start and was lining up for the same move initially. I was determined to overtake Kimi. Daniil was determined to overtake me. Kimi came back from the left, Kvyat came from the back from the right and I was reacting to him. I tried to back out of it, going off throttle and hitting the brakes, but there was no way, so I had contact with Kimi which is a shame, the car was damaged after that, but obviously a great recovery by the Team, which managed to stay calm initially and then change the nose while the safety car was out. Overall we had great pace, good strategy, fantastic pit stops, I couldn’t have asked for more after this poor first lap. Hopefully in Russia we have a smoother race!

RED BULL

DANIIL KVYAT, Finish Position: 3rd, Start Position: 6th

“I really enjoyed the race today. Our pace was very strong and to get this result at this track where we didn’t expect to be so strong is really great. The car is performing really well, the chassis is easy to drive and with further upgrades coming to the power unit, we should be in an even stronger position. I think it was a fair move on Vettel. I saw the gap and I went for it. We didn’t touch, unfortunately for him, Kimi was on his other side. For me it was a logical move and it paid off with a podium. It’s a nice boost for our side of the garage after a couple of tricky races. It’s also good for the team to be consistently fighting for podiums this year. It’s very encouraging for the season. I’m a very happy man today and it’s nice to carry this feeling heading into my home grand prix in Russia."

DANIEL RICCIARDO, Finish Position: 4th, Start Position: 2nd

“I think there were some incidents on the first lap and I remember on my second lap there was a little bit of debris here and there. But it didn’t seem like there was one big bit which I caught so it was still unexpected when I was coming through Turn 11 and 12 and was feeling the rear start to slide so I just came on the radio straight away to let them know the tires were gone. The puncture became noticeable when I got on the straight as I could feel the car start to wobble and then my tire went. Then the safety car put us even further back so that was like a double whammy, which felt like getting punched in the stomach by a heavy weight. But in the end the second part of the race I drove probably one of the best races of my life. The package is really promising for sure. Right now, three races in every weekend we’ve shown our strength at some point and it’s been a strength we didn’t think we’d have this early in the season, so it definitely feels more like 2014 when we had potential. I felt like I would have sprayed champagne today and part of me is smiling because I am optimistic that will happen this year so that’s a really good feeling and I’ll keep fighting."

CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal: “It’s been a great day for the team, especially after that unfortunate start. For Daniel to take the lead and then get that puncture was desperately unlucky after he hit some debris. The safety car then came out at exactly the wrong time for him and put him on the back foot, but it was a fantastic recovery drive. Dany took up the baton and drove a fantastic race, racing with Sebastian for a large part of the race to achieve his second podium. A third and fourth place finish, lots of constructors points so yes, a great day for the team."

RESULTS – 56 LAPS: