2015 Chinese Grand Prix

China  2015 Chinese Grand Prix
Race details
Race 3 of 19 in the 2015 Formula One season

Date 12 April 2015
Official name 2015 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix
Location Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China
Course Permanent Racing Facility
5.451 km (3.387 mi)
Distance 56 laps, 305.066 km (189.559 mi)
Pole position
Driver United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Time 1:35.782
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Time 1:42.208 on lap 31
Podium
First United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Second Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes
Third Germany Sebastian Vettel Ferrari

The 2015 Chinese Grand Prix (formally known as the 2015 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race that was held on 12 April 2015 at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China. The race was the third round of the 2015 season, and marked the twelfth time that the Chinese Grand Prix has been run as a round of the Formula One World Championship.[1]

Lewis Hamilton was the defending race winner and went into the weekend with a three-point lead in the world championship over Sebastian Vettel, who had surprised the field by taking victory in the previous round at Malaysia. Hamilton took pole position during Saturday's qualifying, the 41st of his career and the third in a row. He went on to win the race from his team mate Nico Rosberg.[2]

Report

Background

Tyres

As in 2014, Pirelli announced they would be supplying teams with the white-banded medium compound tyre as the prime selection and the yellow-banded soft compound as the option selection for the event.[3]

Free practice

Three free practice session were held in preparation for the race, two on Friday and another one before qualifying on Saturday morning. World champion Lewis Hamilton took a clean sweep and topped the time sheets in all three session by a considerable margin. The first session saw Lotus test driver Jolyon Palmer participate in place of regular Romain Grosjean. He finished six tenths of a second behind his team mate Pastor Maldonado and was one of several drivers to have off track experiences during the session. Both Mercedes drivers ran wide on different parts of the track, as did Felipe Massa, who spun his Williams in turn 14 towards the end of the session. Hamilton was over half a second clear of his team mate Nico Rosberg on Friday morning, with the Ferraris more than a second behind.[4]

Sparks caused by titanium plates underneath the cars returned to Formula One for the 2015 season

Hamilton continued his strong performance during the second session on Friday afternoon, beating Malaysia winner Sebastian Vettel for the top spot, the German finishing almost half a second down. Most teams ran with both dry tyre compounds. Mercedes appeared more dominant on the harder tyres, one second ahead of the rest of the grid. Red Bull continued to struggle with the same brake problems they had endured in Malaysia two weeks before. The left rear brake of Daniil Kvyat started to smoke after a pit stop, leading the team to investigate the matter further.[5] Felipe Massa spun yet again in turn 14, hitting the barrier with his front wing meaning the session was red-flagged for a while. The session was further disrupted by the shocking appearance of a local man running across the main straight, jumping into pit lane before being stopped by security after entering the Ferrari garage, where he apparently stated he wanted to "try a car".[6][7]

Hamilton was once again fastest during third practice on Saturday morning, even while suffering from overheating under his seat. The two Mercedes were separated by two tenths of a second with the two Ferraris of Vettel and Räikkönen behind, another half a second down. Red Bull had a slight upswing in fortune, with Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat finishing fifth and sixth respectively. McLaren-Honda had another problematic session as Fernando Alonso stopped the car just after starting his installation lap. Team mate Jenson Button was called into the pits as well, citing a similar problem with the engine, but was able to continue later in the session.[8] Felipe Massa experienced smoke in his cockpit both on Friday and Saturday, apparently caused by the new titanium plates underneath the cars which also create sparks when driving over bumps on the track.[9]

Qualifying

Daniel Ricciardo out-qualified his team mate for a third time in as many races to take seventh on the grid.

In qualifying, which started at 3:00pm local time on Saturday afternoon, Lewis Hamilton took the third out of three possible pole positions of the season, narrowly beating his team mate by mere 0.04 seconds. Nico Rosberg reacted frustrated about the result, lamenting his team had put unnecessary pressure on him by telling him to go faster during his last warm-up lap, saying “[w]e need to look at that as that was not ideal to put me under pressure like that".[10]

Mercedes were the only team to use the medium tyre in the first qualifying session (Q1), with all other teams using the faster soft tyre. Five drivers were eliminated in Q1, four of them being the two Manors and the McLaren, all of which had yet failed to go through to Q2. They were joined by the Force India of Nico Hülkenberg, who was to start 16th on the grid.

The second session saw Hamilton post the fastest time, even though his car lost contact to pit lane and his seat overheating once more. He was three tenths clear of his team mate Rosberg, with Sebastian Vettel in third. Daniil Kvyat suffered engine problems and failed to make it into Q3, as did the second Force India of Sergio Pérez, both Toro Rossos and the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado.

During Q3, contested by the top ten, Hamilton just beat his team mate to pole position, with a time set during his first timed lap. Both Ferraris ran their first lap on used tyres in order to save one set for the race. In their second outing, Vettel was able to get ahead of the two Williams of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, while team mate Kimi Räikkönen struggled with the handling of his car in the first part of the track to finish sixth on the grid.[10][11]

Race

Lewis Hamilton on the last lap of the race.

The race began at 2:00pm local time. Kimi Räikkönen managed to pass both Williams cars on the first lap to move up to fourth. On lap 2 Carlos Sainz Jr. spun his Toro Rosso and dropped down the order.

On lap 30, Ferrari attempted to undercut Nico Rosberg's Mercedes by pitting Sebastian Vettel early. However this was unsuccessful as Mercedes reacted by pitting Rosberg the following lap, allowing Rosberg to maintain track position over Vettel. On lap 33, Pastor Maldonado - who had been running in 7th position ahead of teammate Romain Grosjean at the time - missed the pit entry and lost time, dropping several positions. He then proceeded to spin his car on lap 39 as he attempted to make up for lost time, and on lap 48 he had a collision with Jenson Button following a long battle for position, damaging his car and retiring with rear brake failure a few laps later. The stewards later deemed Button to be at fault for the incident.[12]

The top three began to spread out in the second half of the race, and by lap 54 Lewis Hamilton was leading Rosberg by 10.06 seconds, with Vettel a further 12.12 seconds behind Rosberg.[13] However, due to Ferrari's earlier attempt to undercut Rosberg by pitting Vettel early, Räikkönen's tyres were 4 laps fresher than his teammate's, and he closed in on Vettel over the final stint. Having emerged from his final pit stop 4.84 seconds behind Vettel on lap 35, Räikkönen had closed the gap to 1.37 seconds by lap 54.[13] However, the chance of a battle between the Ferrari teammates was extinguished after a transmission failure on Max Verstappen's Toro Rosso brought out the safety car for the final two laps, meaning that the race ended under safety car conditions.

Hamilton crossed the line to win his second race of the season, with Rosberg following him home in 2nd and Vettel completing the podium with 3rd.

Classification

Qualifying

The drivers went around the track for the driver's parade shortly before the race.
Pos. No. Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 Grid
1 44 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:38.285 1:36.423 1:35.782 1
2 6 Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:38.496 1:36.747 1:35.824 2
3 5 Germany Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:37.502 1:36.957 1:36.687 3
4 19 Brazil Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:38.433 1:37.357 1:36.954 4
5 77 Finland Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1:38.014 1:37.763 1:37.143 5
6 7 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:37.790 1:37.109 1:37.232 6
7 3 Australia Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1:38.534 1:37.939 1:37.540 7
8 8 France Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1:38.209 1:38.063 1:37.905 8
9 12 Brazil Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1:38.521 1:38.017 1:38.067 9
10 9 Sweden Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1:38.941 1:38.127 1:38.158 10
11 13 Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 1:38.563 1:38.134 11
12 26 Russia Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 1:39.051 1:38.209 12
13 33 Netherlands Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 1:38.387 1:38.393 13
14 55 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso-Renault 1:38.622 1:38.538 14
15 11 Mexico Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 1:38.903 1:39.290 15
16 27 Germany Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:39.216 16
17 22 United Kingdom Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1:39.276 17
18 14 Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1:39.280 18
19 28 United Kingdom Will Stevens Marussia-Ferrari 1:42.091 19
20 98 Spain Roberto Merhi Marussia-Ferrari 1:42.842 20
107% time: 1:44.327
Source:[14]

Race

Felipe Nasr took his second point finish of the season, finishing eighth.
Pos. No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts.
1 44 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 56 1:39:42.008 1 25
2 6 Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 56 +0.714 2 18
3 5 Germany Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 56 +2.988 3 15
4 7 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 56 +3.835 6 12
5 19 Brazil Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 56 +8.544 4 10
6 77 Finland Valtteri Bottas        Williams-Mercedes 56 +9.885 5 8
7 8 France Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 56 +19.008 8 6
8 12 Brazil Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 56 +22.625 9 4
9 3 Australia Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 56 +32.117 7 2
10 9 Sweden Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 55 +1 Lap 10 1
11 11 Mexico Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 55 +1 Lap 15
12 14 Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 55 +1 Lap 18
13 55 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso-Renault 55 +1 Lap 14
141 22 United Kingdom Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 55 +1 Lap 17
15 28 United Kingdom Will Stevens Marussia-Ferrari 54 +2 Laps 19
162 98 Spain Roberto Merhi Marussia-Ferrari 54 +2 Laps 20
17 33 Netherlands Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 52 Transmission 13
Ret 13 Venezuela Pastor Maldonado        Lotus-Mercedes 49 Brakes 11
Ret 26 Russia Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 15 Engine 12
Ret 27 Germany Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 9 Gearbox 16
Source:[15]
Notes

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos. Driver Pts.
1 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton 68
2 Germany Sebastian Vettel       55
3 Germany Nico Rosberg 51
4 Brazil Felipe Massa 30
5 Finland Kimi Räikkönen 24

Constructors' Championship standings
Pos. Constructor Pts.
1 Germany Mercedes 119
2 Italy Ferrari 79
3 United Kingdom Williams-Mercedes       48
4 Switzerland Sauber-Ferrari 19
1 5 Austria Red Bull-Renault 13

References

  1. "A history of the Chinese Grand Prix". ESPN F1 (ESPN). Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  2. "Lewis Hamilton cruises to Chinese Grand Prix victory". BBC Sport. 12 April 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  3. "Pirelli reveal tyre choices for first four races". Formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 4 March 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  4. Collantine, Keith (10 April 2015). "Mercedes set scorching pace in first practice". F1Fanatic. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  5. Saunders, Nate (10 April 2015). "Red Bull investigates Kvyat's brakes after FP2 failure". ESPN. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  6. "Chinese Grand Prix: man runs on Shanghai track sparking F1 safety fears". Guardian. 10 April 2015. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  7. Collantine, Keith (10 April 2015). "Hamilton holds reduced lead in second practice". F1Fanatic. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  8. Collantine, Keith (11 April 2015). "Hamilton makes it three out of three in Shanghai". F1Fanatic. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  9. Barretto, Lawrence (11 April 2015). "F1 Chinese GP: Titanium spark plate caused Williams cockpit smoke". autosport.com. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  10. 10.0 10.1 Johnson, Daniel (11 April 2015). "Chinese Grand Prix 2015: Lewis Hamilton lands pole ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg in Shanghai". telegraph.co.uk. The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  11. Collantine, Keith (11 April 2015). "Hat-trick for Hamilton after narrow pole position win". F1Fanatic. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  12. "Jenson Button penalised for Pastor Maldonado clash". Autosport.com. Autosport. 12 April 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  13. 13.0 13.1 "Hamilton’s tyre-saving helped Raikkonen catch Vettel". F1Fantatic.com. Keith Collantine. 13 April 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  14. "Qualifying". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 11 April 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  15. "2015 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix - Race results". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 12 April 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  16. 16.0 16.1 "Button penalised for Maldonado collision". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 12 April 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2015.

External links

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2015 Malaysian Grand Prix
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