Chinese GP: Lewis Hamilton Takes Victory

Lewis Hamilton has scored a hat-trick this weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix with a pole position, taking the victory and setting the fastest lap.

Equipped with a phenomenal form ever since Practice 1, Lewis Hamilton has stamped his authority over the Chinese Grand Prix. It did not come as a surprise for the Brit to take the pole position on Saturday, and when he took this important victory today, it was deserving and way ahead of title contender Felipe Massa.

Getting off to a good start the McLaren driver pulled ahead from Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen who was in the second place, followed by teammate Felipe Massa.

Jarno Trulli was punted out of the race by Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais. Furious, Trulli said, "This guy has to cool down a little bit and make up his mind because at the start he doesn't know what he wants to do."

This was not the first time the pair collided on the first lap; it was the second time. Trulli went back to the pits for a nosecone change but retired a lap later as his car was too badly damaged.

Fernando Alonso was then engaged in some fierce battle with McLaren's other driver Heikki Kovalainen who had sneaked up on the Spaniard at the start. Racing wheel to wheel, the Renault looked inspiring as it managed to keep up with the McLaren until Alonso overtook the Finn by braking later when going into the corner after Heikki ran wide at Turn 13.

All the bad luck in the McLaren camp seemed to follow only Heikki Kovalainen as he was hit with yet another retirement after the engine gave up during the Japanese Grand Prix last week.

This week the Finn was hit once again by reliability gremlins and slipped into oblivion before a ruptured front tyre left him limping back into the pits and then eventually retiring when his problem with the pneumatic system got his team recalling him into retirement for precautionary measures.

With little actions taking place on track and the leading McLaren extending his lead lap after laps, the audience were simply left waiting for the inevitable to happen now that the two Ferraris are secured in their second and third places—Kimi Räikkönen second, Felipe Massa third.

Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella was an unsporting backmarker and affected both Hamilton and Räikkönen who were trying to lap him, though Räikkönen was more affected by the Force India driver and gestured at the Italian driver after passing him.

On lap 50, Massa overtook Räikkönen as he gathered more pace while the Finn dropped his. When asked about the move during the post-race press conference, both drivers appeared rather uneasy with the repeated questions asked and Räikkönen was relatively frank about it, reiterating his point the entire weekend that he knows what the team expected of him.

The two Ferraris finished the race in second and third places, behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

Fernando Alonso was in a race of his own and while he began picking up pace to challenge for a podium position during the closing laps, the Spaniard still finished the race in fourth place as his charge came too late.

Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica were able to secure some points for the BMW team to avoid a nightmarish end to their weekend. The BMW cars did not have any pace in China and the team will definitely be looking at what went wrong. Robert Kubica is now out of the title race but his performance this year will certainly make him hungry for more success next year.

Timo Glock picked up two points for the Toyota team and Nelson Piquet Jr completed yet another Grand Prix in point-scoring position, helping to secure Renault's fourth place in the Constructors' Championship along with Alonso but one wonders if the performance of the Brazilian will be enough to please Flavio Briatore.

Both the Red Bull and Toro Rosso teams were unable to take any point out of the Chinese Grand Prix, similarly for the Williams team. Rubens Barrichello had a brave attempt to 11th position in his Honda while teammate Jensen Button continues his horror season in 16th place.

With just one race left to go, Lewis Hamilton now leads the Drivers' Championship by seven points ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa. In a situation eeriely similar to last year's championship fight, Hamilton has to finish the race at least in the fifth position if Felipe Massa takes victory in his homerace.

Should Massa come in second, then Hamilton has to finish in the seventh place or better. If Massa and Hamilton tie in their total points and Massa wins the Brazilian Grand Prix, the title will be Massa's as he has one more race win than Hamilton (counting the Brazilian Grand Prix victory); if Massa is in second place and the two tie in total points, the crown will still be Massa's as he scored more second-placed victory than Hamilton. 

The title is still open for either driver as it has been shown in the fight last year. McLaren may have been blessed with general reliability throughout the season but Heikki Kovalainen's bad luck with the machine might be a concern for the McLaren team. 

Results
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:31:57.403
02 F. Massa Ferrari + 14.925
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 16.445
04 F. Alonso Renault + 18.370
05 N. Heidfeld BMW + 28.923
06 R. Kubica BMW + 33.219
07 T. Glock Toyota + 41.722
08 N. Piquet jr. Renault + 56.645
09 S. Vettel Toro Rosso + 1:04.339
10 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 1:14.842
11 R. Barrichello Honda + 1:25.061
12 K. Nakajima Williams + 1:30.847
13 S. Bourdais Toro Rosso + 1:31.457
14 M. Webber Red Bull + 1:32.422
15 N. Rosberg Williams + 1 laps
16 J. Button Honda + 1 laps
17 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 1 laps
Did not finish
18 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 6 laps
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 41 laps
20 J. Trulli Toyota + 55 laps 
Times from PlanetF1.com

Photo: Reuters/Jason Lee

The writer is the editor of F1GPSG.com - the Singapore community fansite for Formula 1.