Hamilton storms to Chinese Grand Prix win

Lewis Hamilton overtook Sebastian Vettel in the last laps to take the win at the Chinese Grand Prix today and his first victory of the season in another very strategic and exciting race.

While Vettel opted to go for a two-stop strategy, Hamilton went for the three stops who ended up as being the most clever one. On the last laps of the race Vettel lost most of his grip and lap times weren't enough to secure the first place the German had hold for a big part of the race.

Mark Webber had a final blasting part of the race to jump up from 18th in the starting grid to third place, taking the last podium place. In the last laps of the race Webber runnign on younger soft tyres overtook Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg, who finished fourth and fifth respectively.

The race didn't start well for Vettel as he had his worst start for some time. The German wasn't the quickest to react and he saw Button immediately go past him. He still made an effort to defend his first place but by doing that he opened the door to Lewis Hamilton who didn't loose the chance of passing the world champion. Then it was time for Rosberg's effort, but that one Vettel was able to defend, keeping in third place.

In the first laps Button was able to extend his lead over both Hamilton and Vettel, but has the first set of tyres start to degradate he lost his advantage with the top three within 1.2 seconds. As Vettel and Button stopped, the Brit made a mistake and almost stopped in the Red Bull box, giving then Vettel the opportunity to pass him in the pit lane. Next to stop was Hamilton who lost some more time on his last lap out, losing his position to Vettel as well.

At that time Rosberg was in the lead after making an earlier stop in the pits. He also had the help from the race trafic that made the top runners lose some time. He led by five seconds over Sebastian Vettel, with Button, Massa and Hamilton chasing.

It would now end up knowing rather two stops would pay off, but it didn't. Vettel ad Massa in fourth and fifth after their stops managed to keep up with the pace of the front runners before their stops, not allowing them to increase their lead and making sure they would stay ahead after Rosberg, Button and Hamilton stopped.

Then it came the time for counter-attack from Lewis Hamilton. After making the last stop the Brit was behind his team-mate and Rosberg. He first went past Button and then passed Rosberg on Turn 6. Now he just had between him and victory Felipe Massa and Sebastian Vettel, both on two-stops strategies, with both losing massive time and having grip troubles.

With just 12 laps to go Hamilton easily overtook the Ferrari driver on the pits straight and had already Vettel in his sights. The German was losing ground to the Brit, who caught him in lap 50 and starting to attack- The world champion was now defending his position holding to the inside line at the hairpin every time the McLaren drew alongside.

On lap 52, once again on Turn 6, Hamilton tried something different and with better traction went through on the inside into the fast Turn 7. He then went away to secure his first win of the season in a race which came to prove that the new rules are bringing more competitiveness to the 2011 Formula One season.

But the race was't over yet as the podium wasn't yet decided. At that time Massa was still in third place, with Rosberg and Button right on his back. In an attempt to go past Massa, Rosberg went just went a little bit too late on the brakes and let Button pass. With his tyres too old Massa couldn't resist the efforts as Button, Rosberg and Webber overtook him, the latter one staggering everyone with his blasting pace over the last laps.

In the final laps the Australian who had a bad start of the weekend and of the race as well was driving 2 seconds faster than anyone else in the Shanghai International Circuit and with that pace he still could dream with a podium finished, which was confirmed on the penultimate lap as he passed Jenson Button.

Felipe Massa had to settle for sixth place but left China with the stisfaction of outpacing his team-mate Fernando Alonso, who both lacked Massa's speed and lost ground emerging into traffic after pitstops. In the last laps the Spaniard just beat Michael Schumacher who finished seventh, profiting from a very early first of three stops.

Renault couldn't continue its run of podium finishes as Vitaly Petrov was only able to take ninth place ahead of Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber.

For most of the race the rookie Paul di Resta seemed destined to finish once again in the points but faded in the last laps, finishing in 11th ahead of Nick Heidfeld. Adrian Sutil saw Sergio Pérez spoil his race with contact which his front wing.

After making big impression by putting both of their cars in the top ten in qualifying Toro Rosso failed to perform as both cars fell down the order, with Buemi finishing 14th behind Rubens Barrichello and Alguersuari retiring when a wheel fell off after his pitstop. Heikki Kovalainen and Lotus had something to celebrate about as the Finn beat Sergio Pérez and Pastor Maldonado finishing in 16th.

FASTEST LAP: Mark Webber, 1:38.993

Drivers Championship

Constructors Championship