IT'S HAMMER TIME!

So the Shanghai GP is done with. And for you Hamilton fans out there, IT'S HAMMER TIME! The hammering starts and hopefully won't stop till Abu Dhabi. Now I know how Vettel fans have been feeling for 4 years. Nice! Although to be honest, the Shanghai race was boring. I know that 1 person's domination can be boring for the championship but I bet Vettel fans never said that for 4 years. Anyway, it's been 4 boring years so time for a change.

So to recap the race, here we have some interesting articles written by people of F1 knowledge, in case any of you missed the race or saw it but want to know more. Enjoy.

WINNERS AND LOSERS: CHINESE GP
Written by Andrew Davies of the PlanetF1 team

There was no Shanghai surprise as Mercedes racked up four wins out of four, and their third 1-2 of the season, despite Nico Rosberg having to do onerous things like read out his dash display when the telemetry failed.

Star of the Race

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1st

Lewis was at his peerless best, dominating Qualifying and highlighting the difference between himself and his team-mate in the wet. In the race, on Lap 16, we got the bizarre team radio snippet of, "surprisingly the front tyres feel really good - and the rears". It was something you so rarely hear, like farmers saying they're going to have a good harvest or politicians endorsing their rivals' policies.

Won't be long now bud..

After winning three of the first four race of the season (and getting pole for the race from which he retired), you have to say there might even be something in the bizarre scheme of Bernie's. Remember his gold, silver and bronze medal theory of F1. The World Champion is the one with the most golds. It wouldn't work for many reasons, but should Lewis retire in Barcelona for some stray reason and Nico resume the pattern we've established in the first four races in the next four, then he'll still be ahead. With that scenario Lewis could head to his home GP at Silverstone having won six of eight races still trailing Rosberg by 8 points.

He impressed Niki Lauda with his ability to lift and coast this race, using about 3.7kg less fuel than his team-mate.

Overtaking Move Of The Race

Lap 33 Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham on Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull.

Kobayashi pulled off an Edmund Irvine-like unlapping of himself. In a week where we're remembering 20 years since that fateful day at Imola where we lost Senna, Kobayashi hustled his Caterham past an out-of-tyres Sebastian Vettel to take a lap back. It was similar to Irvine nipping back past Ayrton Senna at Suzuka - for which Senna had a major sense of humour failure and went and slapped the Ulsterman afterwards. That didn't happen at Shanghai. But it was a great moment and an indication of just how much fun Sebastian is having in the middle of the pack.

To read the full article, go HERE.

INSIGHT: HOW ROSBERG CAME THROUGH, RICCIARDO WAS COMPROMISED AND ALONSO GOT AWAY WITH IT

Written by James Allen with input and data from several F1 team strategists, from JA on F1 technical adviser Mark Gillan and from Pirelli.

The UBS Chinese Grand Prix was not as thrilling as the Bahrain GP, which preceded it, but from a strategy point of view and in terms of revealing the decision-making process that goes on behind the scenes during Formula 1 races, it was a fascinating event.

There were a number of talking points, one of the main ones being the Red Bull team trying to manage its two drivers, asking Sebastian Vettel to move over so as not to prevent team mate Daniel Ricciardo challenging Ferrari. Vettel initially refused, then relented. There was some confusion about what strategy each driver was doing. So did it cost Ricciardo a podium?

Best view ever?

Another was the relative performances of Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg; multiple factors worked against Rosberg in the race, but he still came through to second place through determined driving and clever strategy moves by Mercedes.

To read the full article, go HERE.

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