Hamilton marks 1,000th F1 Grand Prix with Mercedes 1-2 in Shanghai

Lewis Hamilton led teammate Valtteri Bottas to a Mercedes one-two today at this year’s Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, which marked the 1,000th race in the history of the top flight. 

Hamilton had a brilliant start in which he powered past pole-sitter Bottas to grab the lead, and he never looked back from there.

Hamilton triumphed in a total race time of 1h 32m 06.350s. He was 6.552s ahead of Bottas, while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel completed the podium placers in third 13.744s behind.

With the result, Mercedes claimed their third successive one-two to start the 2019 season and posted the team’s 90th race win in Formula 1.

Hamilton took his 75th career victory and his second of the current campaign, including his sixth triumph in China.

Hamilton was also able to leapfrog Bottas and claim first place on the Drivers’ Championship standings with 68 points, six ahead of Bottas. Mercedes (130 points) lead Ferrari (76 points) already by 54 points atop the Constructors’ Championship standings.

Finishing behind the top three were Max Verstappen (+27.627s) of Red Bull Racing in fourth, Charles Leclerc (+31.276s) of Ferrari in fifth, Pierre Gasly (+89.307s) of Red Bull in sixth, Daniel Ricciardo (+1 lap) of Renault in seventh and Sergio Perez (+1 lap) of Racing Point in eighth. Completing the top 10 and the points winners were Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen (+1 lap) and Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon (+1 lap).

Gasly scored an extra point after clocking the race’s fastest lap of 1m 34.742s.

Following his victory, Hamilton commented: “It’s not been the most straightforward of weekends, but what a fantastic result for the team, everyone’s worked so hard for this.

“Coming here we didn’t know exactly where we would stand with Ferrari, as they’d been so quick in Bahrain. Valtteri has been quick all weekend and did a great job today. To have a 1-2 together is really special for the 1,000th Grand Prix

“The start was where I made the difference and after that it’s history. The strategy has really been on point over these first three races so we need to keep that up.

“A big thank you to everyone who’s supported me. You can still see it’s very close between us all. I really have no idea how the next races will turn out but I’m super excited for them.”

The next race on the calendar is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, taking place April 26 to 28 in Baku.