Lewis Hamilton continued his imperious early season form, as he took his third win in four races to further distance himself from Nico Rosberg – chief rival and teammate – in the standings. However, it was Kimi Raikkonen who dazzled under the floodlights, as the Finn emerged from Sebastian Vettel’s shadow to lead the charge for Ferrari and very nearly claim his first Grand Prix victory since 2013.
Saturday’s qualifying was just as fascinating. Hamilton was at his brilliant best, claiming a comfortable pole position. Contrary to form, Rosberg did not join him on the front row, as Vettel split the Mercedes, with a performance that Ferrari had been hinting was possible throughout Friday.
Having not managed to set a time in Q1, Jenson Button was set to start from the back of the field, as McLaren’s power unit related woes continued. The weekend turned into a non-event for the 2009 World Champion, as an electrical issue left him marooned in the garage and unable to make the race start.
The Briton proceeded to entertain his followers during the race, by posting his comments regarding the on-track action over Twitter.
He had plenty to comment on. Following a Chinese Grand Prix lacking in thrill-factor, this race was more of a spectacle. After qualifying third, Raikkonen managed to jump Rosberg off the line, leaving the German with work to do.
He set about completing that work immediately, scything back past the Finn on lap four, before pulling the same trick on second place Vettel five laps later. Hamilton, meanwhile, had built a margin at the front. It was ultimately, a gap that Rosberg was unable to bridge.
With Vettel making uncharacteristic mistakes and heading off-track on three separate occasions, Raikkonen soon headed the Ferrari challenge and on a contra-strategy. The Finn stopped on lap 18 – the last of the top four to make his opening pit-stop – opening up the opportunity to run the soft tyre in the final stint and therefore, take a tyre advantage over Mercedes into the closing stages.
Much like in Malaysia, this was Ferrari acknowledging the Mercedes-superiority on raw pace, but attempting to outwit their rivals on strategy. Given that Kimi’s last win had come in similar fashion, albeit for Lotus, it seemed that the right car and driver combination was in contention to give Mercedes a headache.
When Raikkonen emerged from his final stop on a set of option tyres, but behind both Rosberg and Hamilton, the chase commenced. Strategists and armchair pundits alike questioned whether Ferrari had compromised their chances of victory, however, by extending Kimi’s second stint on the prime tyre.
Meanwhile, teammate Vettel was long out of contention. His final of the aforementioned three excursions caused damage to his front wing. After making an unscheduled third stop, he emerged behind Valtteri Bottas’ Williams where, despite a pace advantage, he stayed. Fifth place was the best the German could achieve on what became a difficult evening.
Raikkonen’s pursuit of the Mercedes duo saw him catch Rosberg with just a handful of laps remaining. The pair of W06’s then ran into brake issues, with Rosberg losing out to Raikkonen after running deep into turn one as a direct result of this technical gremlin.
Hamilton was able to cruise home, using all of the available gap to Raikkonen as he protected his brakes as much as possible. A brief moment of jeopardy on an otherwise comfortable night for the Briton.
Another 25 points saw him extend his lead in the standings to 27 points over Rosberg, who in turn dethroned Vettel from his second place in the table. Raikkonen’s first podium of the year was ultimately a rare highlight of another difficult season, as he failed to take momentum away from a race which he so nearly won.
