2016 Chinese GP - Post Race Press Conference

2016 Chinese Grand Prix review

The start was very interesting again for the third time. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo took the lead and the Ferraris crashed. Sebastian Vettel was so focused on overtaking his teammate Kimi Raikkonen that he left the door open for Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat who overtook the German easily. Vettel crashed with Raikkonen who dropped back and had to pit. Vettel blamed Kvyat for the crash but has today already admitted that it was not Kvyat's fault.

At the back of the grid Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton crashed into one of the Saubers and lost his front wing. He also had to pit on the next lap.

Haas' Romain Grosjean also managed to crash with one of the Saubers and had a broken front wing. Now he also had to pit.

Ricciardo was flying in the front but lost his lead to the Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg when he had a puncture. Now Ricciardo also had to pit in the end of lap 3.

The safety car was deployed on lap 4 because there was so much stuff on the track. Vettel pitted right away and managed to overtake 2 cars just before the pit lane. He had to go two wheels on the grass but did a good job.

Hamilton also pitted on lap 6 and again on lap 7 so that he could continue with the soft tyres as much as possible.

Two laps later the safety car pitted and the race continued with Vettel overtaking 8 cars on 3 laps. Very good work from the 4 time world champion. He continued overtaking cars after this as well but not as fast as on those three laps. Everything went as he had planned but he still managed to have contact with Williams' Valtteri Bottas when he crashed into his rear tyre. Luckily nobody got any serious damage from that. In the end Vettel was second and seemed to be happy with the result because Rosberg was too far away in front.

Red Bull was very strong this weekend! Ricciardo started by leading the race and was fourth at the checkered flag. His teammate Kvyat was third and got his first podium of the season. Red Bull is clearly the third best team now.

All in all Raikkonen did a very good job getting his car to the finish line in fifth. He had been in last place at one point so it was a great day for the Iceman.

Hamilton on the other hand was a disappointment for me. I really thought he would make it to the podium in China even though he started from the back. His car is so good that it was possible.

Rosberg is the only driver from the whole grid who has managed to win the three first races on any season of their careers. It looks like this season will be much more interesting to follow if Hamilton starts to catch his teammate a bit and I am sure that he will. There's still a lot of races to go.

And then as usual it's time for the predictions and how it went.

Pole position: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - CORRECT.

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG, he was 7th because he started the race from the back.
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG, he won the race.
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - WRONG, he was 2nd and Daniil Kvyat was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG, Daniel Ricciardo was fastest.

Surprise: Keep an eye on Valtteri Bottas - He overtook several cars very nicely but I didn't see anything surprising about it. He could have done better in my opinion. It seems that Williams is now the fourth best team though.

Join our PREDICTORS LEAGUE now!





POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.