By Stephen Burns

Having been in dominant mood all whole weekend, Lewis Hamilton was unable to seal the Formula One World Championship in China but extended his championship lead to seven points over Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. For only the second time in his short career Hamilton asserted supreme dominance with a lights to flag race that included the fastest lap.

Following the excitement of the previous race, the Chinese Grand Prix was a largely processional affair. Hamilton, having qualified the McLaren on pole position, made the better start while main rival Massa was unable to gain ground away from the lights and slotted into third behind the sister Ferrari of Raikkonen for the first turn. Hamilton led by just over a second at the end of the first lap and continued to set the pace, continually setting fastest lap times until the first round of pit stops. Faultless work by the McLaren pit crew enabled Hamilton to emerge from the pits into relatively clear air while Raikkonen rejoined behind the heavily fuelled Torro Rosso of Sebastien Vettel. Massa remained in third and simply didn’t have the pace to match that of the McLaren despite having tried two stints on the softer tyres to try to negate the effects of the cooler than expected temperatures.

The top three remained unchanged after the second round of pit stops but as expected Raikkonen let team mate Massa past on lap 49 for an extra two points in the championship standings. Hamilton’s team mate Heikki Kovalainen was unable to provide a supporting role in the championship hunt as a race long problem with the brakes on his McLaren contributed to a puncture before eventually leading to his retirement on lap 50.

Hamilton now leads the Driver’s Championship by seven points as the final race of the preparations for the final race of the season in Brazil, with Massa the hometown hero being the one to benefit from the support of the crowd.

Chinese Grand Prix Result

World Championship Standings