Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix for a fifth time as he and Mercedes-GP bounced back from their opening race defeat in Australia.
The triple world champion dominated as he led all 56 laps in Shanghai to finish ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull Racing cars of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.
The race had begun in damp conditions with the majority of the field starting on intermediates.
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■ In pictures: Mercedes-GP driver Lewis Hamilton wins Chinese Grand Prix for the fifth time
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Vettel had run second behind Hamilton but had lost ground and fell to fifth after an early pit stop to dry tyres backfired when he lost time during a safety car period after the Sauber of Antonio Giovinazzi had crashed heavily.
Vettel recovered to second by overtaking teammate Kimi Raikkonen and Ricciardo, before getting past Verstappen after the Dutchman outbraked himself at the end of the long back straight.
But he had no answer to Hamilton who cruised home by a margin of 6.2 seconds.
“Get in there Lewis!” Hamilton’s engineer said over team radio after the three-time world champion took the chequered flag in China for the third time in the last four years.
“That’s a great race, mate. An absolute masterclass.”
Hamilton replied: “We’ve worked really hard for this, we’ve got to keep pushing.”
Raikkonen finished fifth, with the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas recovering from a spin to come home sixth.
Hamilton and Vettel are now level in the drivers’ championship on 43 points ahead of the next race in Bahrain on April 16.
Result from the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai International Circuit on Sunday:
1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 1:37:36.160
2. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari +00:06.250
3. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull - TAG Heuer 00:45.192
4. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Red Bull - TAG Heuer 00:46.035
5. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 00:48.076
6. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Mercedes 00:48.808
7. Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Toro Rosso - Renault 01:12.893
8. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark) Haas - Ferrari 1 lap
9. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India - Mercedes 1 lap
10. Esteban Ocon (France) Force India - Mercedes 1 lap
11. Romain Grosjean (France) Haas - Ferrari 1 lap
12. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Renault 1 lap
13. Jolyon Palmer (Britain) Renault 1 lap
14. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams-Mercedes 1 lap
15. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Sauber - Ferrari 1 lap
Retired (r). Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren 23 laps
r. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) Toro Rosso - Renault 38 laps
r. Stoffel Vandoorne (Belgium) McLaren 39 laps
r. Antonio Giovinazzi (Italy) Sauber - Ferrari 53 laps
r. Lance Stroll (Canada) Williams-Mercedes 56 laps
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