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25px Template:Country alias China  2015 Chinese Grand Prix
Race details
Race 3 of 19 in the 2015 Formula One season
Shanghai International Racing Circuit track map
Date 12 2015 (2015-04-12)
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 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Time 1:35.782
Fastest lap
Driver 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Time 1:42.208 on lap 31
Podium
First 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Second 25px Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes
Third 25px 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] The race was won by Lewis Hamilton.[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]

Vettel perez 2015 china

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 seperated 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[]

Ricciardo 2015 China pits

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.[11][10]

Race[]

Hamilton China 2015

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[]

2015 Chinese Grand Prix Driver Parade

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 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:38.285 1:36.423 1:35.782 1
2 6 25px Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:38.496 1:36.747 1:35.824 2
3 5 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:37.502 1:36.957 1:36.687 3
4 19 25px Brazil Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:38.433 1:37.357 1:36.954 4
5 77 25px Finland Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1:38.014 1:37.763 1:37.143 5
6 7 25px Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:37.790 1:37.109 1:37.232 6
7 3 25px Australia Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1:38.534 1:37.939 1:37.540 7
8 8 25px France Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1:38.209 1:38.063 1:37.905 8
9 12 25px Brazil Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1:38.521 1:38.017 1:38.067 9
10 9 25px Sweden Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1:38.941 1:38.127 1:38.158 10
11 13 25px The flag of Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 1:38.563 1:38.134 11
12 26 25px The flag of the Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 1:39.051 1:38.209 12
13 33 25px Netherlands Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 1:38.387 1:38.393 13
14 55 25px Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso-Renault 1:38.622 1:38.538 14
15 11 25px Mexico Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 1:38.903 1:39.290 15
16 27 25px Germany Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:39.216 16
17 22 25px Great Britain Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1:39.276 17
18 14 25px Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1:39.280 18
19 28 25px Great Britain Will Stevens Marussia-Ferrari 1:42.091 19
20 98 25px Spain Roberto Merhi Marussia-Ferrari 1:42.842 20
107% time: 1:44.327
Source: [14]


Race[]

Nasr China 2015

Felipe Nasr took his second point finish of the season, finishing eighth.

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts.
1 44 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 56 1:39:42.008 1 25
2 6 25px Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 56 +0.714 2 18
3 5 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 56 +2.988 3 15
4 7 25px Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 56 +3.835 6 12
5 19 25px Brazil Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 56 +8.544 4 10
6 77 25px Finland Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 56 +9.885 5 8
7 8 25px France Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 56 +19.008 8 6
8 12 25px Brazil Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 56 +22.625 9 4
9 3 25px Australia Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 56 +32.117 7 2
10 9 25px Sweden Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 55 +1 Lap 10 1
11 11 25px Mexico Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 55 +1 Lap 15
12 14 25px Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 55 +1 Lap 18
13 55 25px Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso-Renault 55 +1 Lap 14
14 1 22 25px Great Britain Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 55 +1 Lap 17
15 28 25px Great Britain Will Stevens Marussia-Ferrari 54 +2 Laps 19
16 2 98 25px Spain Roberto Merhi Marussia-Ferrari 54 +2 Laps 20
17 33 25px Netherlands Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 52 Transmission 13
Ret 13 25px The flag of Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 49 Brakes 11
Ret 26 25px The flag of the Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 15 Engine 12
Ret 27 25px Germany Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 9 Gearbox 16
Source:[15]
Notes
  • # – Jenson Button originally finished thirteenth but received a five-second time penalty after the race following a collision with Pastor Maldonado.[16]
  • # – Roberto Merhi received a five-second time penalty after the race for failing to stay above the required lap time under the safety car.[16]

Standings after the race[]

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos. Driver Pts.
1rightarrow blue.svg 1 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton 68
1rightarrow blue.svg 2 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel 55
1rightarrow blue.svg 3 25px Germany Nico Rosberg 51
1rightarrow blue.svg 4 25px Brazil Felipe Massa 30
1rightarrow blue.svg 5 25px Finland Kimi Räikkönen 24
Constructors' Championship standings
Pos. Constructor Pts.
1rightarrow blue.svg 1 25px Germany Mercedes 119
1rightarrow blue.svg 2 25px Italy Ferrari 79
1rightarrow blue.svg 3 25px Great Britain Williams-Mercedes 48
1rightarrow blue.svg 4 25px Switzerland Sauber-Ferrari 19
1uparrow green.svg 1 5 25px Austria Red Bull-Renault 13
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References[]

  1. "A history of the Chinese Grand Prix". ESPN F1 (ESPN). http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/page/2599.html. Retrieved 30 March 2015. 
  2. "Lewis Hamilton cruises to Chinese Grand Prix victory". BBC Sport. 12 April 2015. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/32274101. Retrieved 13 April 2015. 
  3. "Pirelli reveal tyre choices for first four races". Formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 4 March 2015. http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2015/3/16856.html. Retrieved 8 March 2015. 
  4. Collantine, Keith (10 April 2015). "Mercedes set scorching pace in first practice". F1Fanatic. http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/04/10/mercedes-set-scorching-pace-in-first-practice/. Retrieved 27 April 2015. 
  5. Saunders, Nate (10 April 2015). "Red Bull investigates Kvyat's brakes after FP2 failure". ESPN. http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/12660235/red-bull-investigates-daniil-kvyat-brakes-fiery-failure-china. Retrieved 27 April 2015. 
  6. "Chinese Grand Prix: man runs on Shanghai track sparking F1 safety fears". Guardian. 10 April 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/10/chinese-grand-prix-man-shanghai-track-f1-safety-fears. Retrieved 27 April 2015. 
  7. Collantine, Keith (10 April 2015). "Hamilton holds reduced lead in second practice". F1Fanatic. http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/04/10/hamilton-holds-reduced-lead-in-second-practice/. Retrieved 27 April 2015. 
  8. Collantine, Keith (11 April 2015). "Hamilton makes it three out of three in Shanghai". F1Fanatic. http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/04/11/hamilton-makes-it-three-out-of-three-in-shanghai/. Retrieved 27 April 2015. 
  9. Barretto, Lawrence (11 April 2015). "F1 Chinese GP: Titanium spark plate caused Williams cockpit smoke". http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/118460. 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". The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/lewishamilton/11529644/Chinese-Grand-Prix-2015-Lewis-Hamilton-lands-pole-ahead-of-team-mate-Nico-Rosberg-in-Shanghai.html. Retrieved 27 April 2015. 
  11. Collantine, Keith (11 April 2015). "Hat-trick for Hamilton after narrow pole position win". F1Fanatic. http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/04/11/hat-trick-for-hamilton-after-narrow-pole-position-win/. Retrieved 27 April 2015. 
  12. "Jenson Button penalised for Pastor Maldonado clash". Autosport. 12 April 2015. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/118477. Retrieved 13 April 2015. 
  13. 13.0 13.1 "Hamilton’s tyre-saving helped Raikkonen catch Vettel". Keith Collantine. 13 April 2015. http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/04/13/hamiltons-tyre-saving-helped-raikkonen-catch-vettel/. Retrieved 15 April 2015. 
  14. "Qualifying". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 11 April 2015. http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/championship/results/2015-race-results/2015-china-results/qualifying.html. Retrieved 18 April 2015. 
  15. "2015 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix - Race results". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 12 April 2015. http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/championship/results/2015-race-results/2015-china-results/race.html. Retrieved 12 April 2015. 
  16. 16.0 16.1 "Button penalised for Maldonado collision". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 12 April 2015. http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/latest/headlines/2015/4/button-penalised-for-maldonado-collision.html. Retrieved 12 April 2015. 

External links[]



Previous race:
2015 Malaysian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
2015 season
Next race:
2015 Bahrain Grand Prix
Previous race:
2014 Chinese Grand Prix
Chinese Grand Prix Next race:
2016 Chinese Grand Prix
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